E-Paper
X handles of Reuters, TRT World, Global Times restored
X handles of Reuters, TRT World, and Global Times News were restored after being blocked in India for nearly 24 hours amid a crackdown on foreign news accounts.
The X handles of international news organisations like Reuters, Turkey’s TRT World and China’s Global Times News were restored late on Sunday night, nearly 24 hours after they were blocked in India with the messages on the social media platform saying that “…has been withheld in IN in response to legal demand”.
While a spokesperson for the IT ministry said that there was no requirement from the government to withhold these accounts and that they were “continuously working with X to resolve the problem”, a senior official at the ministry said that the Reuters handle was among the accounts the government had asked the social media platform to block during Operation Sindoor.
“X did not comply with the order at the time and the government did not escalate matter,” the official said, further expressing surprise that the handle was blocked in a “delayed response to the earlier directive”.
During Operation Sindoor, the Indian government sent executive orders to block over 8,000 accounts of foreign news outlets and prominent users.
There was no immediate response from X on HT’s request for comment.
The official cited above, meanwhile, said that the government has sent a written response to X asking the social media company to explain the blocking.
The handles of both TRT World and Global Times News were restricted by the Indian government during Operation Sindoor amid a crackdown on “anti-India content”, and restored later, until Saturday night when they were withheld again.
Another official in the ministry said that it appeared to be a technical issue.
The blocking of these handles comes days after YouTube and Instagram accounts of several Pakistani celebrities and news channels were unblocked for a day with officials citing a “technical error”. They were later re-blocked.
