Govt says did not issue block order on Reuters or any news channel, blames X for 21-hour delay in unblocking

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has officially denied issuing any fresh blocking order on July 3, 2025, related to Reuters or other international news outlets. This clarification comes after X said that it was forced to block 2,355 accounts, including the handles of @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, based on a government order under Section 69A of the IT Act.

 

Official Spokesperson, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says, "The Government has not issued any fresh blocking order on 3rd July, 2025 and has no intention to block any prominent international News Channels including Reuters and Reuters World. The moment…

— ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2025

 

What the spokesperson said

In a statement on Tuesday, the official spokesperson of IT Ministry said:

“The Government has not issued any fresh blocking order on July 3, 2025, and has no intention to block any prominent international news channels including Reuters and Reuters World.”

The spokesperson added that the moment the government found out that Reuters accounts were blocked on X, it immediately wrote to the platform requesting an unblocking of the URLs.

Government followed up for over 21 hours

The ministry said that it began following up with X from the late night of July 5. Officials pursued the matter 'vigorously' and followed up with X on an hourly basis until the accounts were unblocked.

"X unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn't unblock the URLs," the spokesperson said.

According to MeitY, X finally unblocked Reuters and other affected URLs after 9 PM on July 6, more than 21 hours after the government had started the unblocking process.

What X had claimed

Earlier, X had stated publicly that it received a legal demand from the Indian government on July 3 to block 2,355 accounts under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. The platform said:

“Non-compliance risked criminal liability… The Ministry demanded immediate action, within one hour, without justification.”

X further claimed that after public backlash, the Indian government later asked them to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld.

The platform also raised concerns over press censorship and said it was exploring legal options, although Indian laws limit its ability to challenge such executive orders directly.

Ongoing friction between government and tech platforms

This incident adds to the growing tension between global social media platforms and the Indian government over content control, censorship and the interpretation of Section 69A, which allows the government to block online content in the interest of national security or public order.