X blocks Reuters accounts in India

The main Reuters news account, as well as the Reuters World account, have apparently been inaccessible to X users in India since Saturday evening.

Reuters reports that Indian users attempting to view the @Reuters account — which has 25 million followers — instead see a message stating that the account “has been withheld in IN (India) in response to a legal demand.”

However, an Indian government spokesperson told Reuters that no government agency has made such a demand.

A Reuters spokesperson said the news agency is “working with X to resolve this matter.” Reuters also says its social media team previously received a notification from X in May stating that the company was withholding content at the Indian government’s request, though the notification did not specify which agency made the request or which content was being targeted.

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter (which recently merged with another Elon Musk company, xAI) has criticized the Indian government over demands that it block certain accounts and posts.

It even sued the government in March, claiming that a new website allows “unrestrained censorship of information in India” by unlawfully enabling “countless” public officials to take down content or block accounts. The government said the website only allowed it to notify companies about harmful online content.

Last year, X also engaged in a protracted battle with Brazil’s Supreme Court, which saw the service shut down operations in the country, then get banned for more than a month.

TechCrunch has reached out to X for comment.