Reuters X accounts ‘withheld’ in India: local media | تازہ ترین پاکستان کی خبریں

Reuters X accounts ‘withheld’ in India: local media — TheReutersnews agency’s X account handles were “withheld” in India “in response to a legal demand”, Indian outletThe Printreported on Sunday. The acco...

TheReutersnews agency’s X account handles were “withheld” in India “in response to a legal demand”, Indian outletThe Printreported on Sunday.

The accounts for bothReutersandReuters Worldwere inaccessible in India; however, users were still able to access 30 otherReutersaccounts,The Printadded. TheReutersnews website is also accessible.

X users in India have posted screenshots showing that they are unable to access the news agency’s accounts.

Reutershas yet to issue a statement, while the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) toldIndia Todaythat no order was given to restrict the accounts.

“There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold theReutershandle. We are continuously working with X to resolve the problem,” an official spokesperson for the ministry told outletIndia Today.

The Printreported that in previous instances of X restricting access to accounts in India due to legal requirements, the platform issued statements through its Global Government Affairshandle.

The account has yet to issue a statement on the restriction.

This is not the first time India has blocked accounts on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

According to an Instagram post byThe Hindustan Times, the accounts were withheld as per orders issued amidOperation Sindoor, when India launched missiles at sites in Pakistan in May.

“The centre (government) has reportedly responded to social media platform X blocking the account of news agencyReutersin India, saying that it is a mistake on the part of the Elon Musk-owned company,” the outlet wrote in the post’s caption.

View this post on Instagram

According toThe Print, X issued a statement on May 8 saying it had “received executive orders from the Indian government” to “block over 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees”.

“In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws. For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts,” X wrote.

Though X stated that it disagreed with New Delhi’s demands, the platform withheld access to the account solely within India.