The principle Reuters information account, in addition to the Reuters World account, turned inaccessible to X customers in India on Saturday night. Entry was subsequently restored on Sunday.
Reuters stories that Indian customers making an attempt to view the @Reuters account — which has 25 million followers — as an alternative noticed a message stating that the account “has been withheld in IN (India) in response to a authorized demand.”
Nevertheless, an Indian authorities spokesperson instructed TechCrunch, “There is no such thing as a requirement from the Authorities of India to withhold Reuters deal with. We’re constantly working with X to resolve the issue.”
A Reuters spokesperson mentioned the information company is “working with X to resolve this matter.” Reuters additionally says its social media group beforehand obtained a notification from X in Could stating that the corporate was withholding content material on the Indian authorities’s request, although the notification didn’t specify which company made the request or which content material was being focused.
The social media platform previously often known as Twitter (which not too long ago merged with one other Elon Musk firm, xAI) has criticized the Indian authorities over calls for that it block sure accounts and posts.
It even sued the federal government in March, claiming {that a} new web site permits “unrestrained censorship of data in India” by unlawfully enabling “numerous” public officers to take down content material or block accounts. The federal government mentioned the web site solely allowed it to inform corporations about dangerous on-line content material.
Final 12 months, X additionally engaged in a protracted battle with Brazil’s Supreme Court docket, which noticed the service shut down operations within the nation, then get banned for greater than a month.
X didn’t instantly reply to a TechCrunch request for remark. Reuters didn’t instantly reply to a TechCrunch’s extra questions on its communication with the Indian authorities and X.
The submit has been up to date to replicate that the Reuters accounts have been restored. Further reporting by Jagmeet Singh.
