The social media site’s officials say they are ‘deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India.’
Social media platform X on Saturday blocked 2,355 accounts in India following a demand by the Indian government, which has denied the claim. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo
The Indian government on Thursday ordered the X social media platform to ban 2,355 accounts within the country, including at least two media accounts, X officials announced on Tuesday.
Officials for X called the bans “press censorship” that initially included the accounts for the Reuters and Reuters World wire services, which X blocked on Saturday.
“The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology demanded immediate action — within one hour — without providing justification and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice,” the X Global Government Affairs staff said in a post made early Tuesday morning.
“Non-compliance risked criminal liability,” the XGGA said. “We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders.”
The Indian government has since asked X to remove the blocks on Reuters and Reuters World following what the XGGA called a “public outcry.”
Officials for X are looking into legal options for countering the block order and urge the owners of affected accounts and users to seek legal remedies in the courts.
The Indian government denied requiring X to block Reuters’ accounts, which were restored on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported.
“The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on the X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to X to unblock them,” the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement, as reported by Indian news outlet The Statesman.
“The government … has no intention to block any prominent international news channels,” that statement said.
The incident is not the first involving the Indian government and accusations of censorship of X content.
X officials in March sued the Indian government due to what they said was an illegal expansion of online censorship by India’s IT Ministry.
