Musk's X ‘deeply concerned’ about ‘press censorship’ in India

New Delhi: Elon Musk-owned social media platform X on Tuesday expressed deep concern about “ongoing press censorship” in India, days after global news agency Reuters’ account was ‘withheld’ in the country after an order by the Narendra Modi government.

However, the government hit back at X and accused it of twisting facts and delaying unblocking the accounts of Reuters.

X’s Global Government Affairs account has claimed that last week (July 3), the Indian government ordered the social media platform to block 2,355 accounts in the country, including that of Reuters “under Section 69A of the IT Act”. It added that non-compliance with the order “risked criminal liability”.

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 post said.

After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, the X said in its post.

“We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders. X is exploring all legal options available. Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges against these executive orders. We urge affected users to pursue legal remedies through the courts,” X said.

The social media platform also claimed that India’s IT ministry demanded that X adhere to the order “within an hour” and did not provide any “justification” for the move.

However, the government again reiterated that it had not issued any fresh order on July 3 to block the X accounts linked to Reuters.

“The moment Reuters and ReutersWorld were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to X to unblock them. The government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued with X from the late night of 5th July 2025,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Centre said that X “unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn’t unblock the URLs”. “However, after a lot of follow up on hourly basis, X has finally unblocked Reuters and other URLs after 9 pm on 6th July 2025. They took more than 21 hours to unblock Reuters,” the ministry said.