On Saturday night, X users in India lost access to both the Reuters World account and the primary Reuters news account. On Sunday, access was reestablished.
When Indian users tried to access the @Reuters account, which has 25 million followers, they were greeted with a notice claiming the account “has been withheld in IN (India) in accordance to a court demand,” according to Reuters.
However, a representative for the Indian government told TechCrunch, “The Government of India does not require that Reuters’ handle be withheld. We are working with X to find a solution all the time.
According to a Reuters representative, the news organization is “working with X to rectify this situation.” Additionally, according to Reuters, X previously notified its social media team in May that it was removing content at the request of the Indian government; but, the notification did not identify the specific content being targeted or the agency making the request.
The Indian government has come under fire from the social media site, formerly known as Twitter, which just joined with xAI, another Elon Musk business, for demanding that it restrict specific users and postings.
In March, it even filed a lawsuit against the government, alleging that a new website permits “unrestrained censorship of information in India” by giving “countless” public authorities the illegal ability to remove content or restrict accounts. According to the government, the website merely permitted it to alert businesses to potentially dangerous content on the internet.
Additionally, X had a long battle with the Brazilian Supreme Court last year, which resulted in the service ceasing operations there and receiving a more than month-long ban.
X did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. TechCrunch’s other questions about Reuters’s contacts with X and the Indian government were not immediately addressed.
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