The Reuters News account
on X was restored in India on Sunday, a day after the social
media platform suspended it, citing a legal demand.
“At this time, we are no longer withholding access in INDIA to
your account,” X said in an email to the Reuters social media
team, without elaborating.
Representatives for X, Reuters and the Indian government did
not immediately respond to requests for comment on the
restoration of the account.
Earlier on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Indian government’s
Press Information Bureau told Reuters that no Indian government
agency had required withholding the Reuters handle, adding that
officials were working with X to resolve the problem.
A Reuters spokesperson had said the agency was working with X to
resolve this matter and get the Reuters account reinstated in
India as soon as possible.
Reuters World, another X account operated by the news agency
which was blocked in India, was also restored late Sunday night.
The main Reuters account, which has more than 25 million
followers globally, had been blocked in India since Saturday
night. A notice told X users that “@Reuters has been withheld in
IN (India) in response to a legal demand”.
In an email to the Reuters social media team on May 16, X
said: “It is our policy to notify account holders if we receive
a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law
enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their
account.”
“In order to comply with X obligations under India’s local
laws, we have withheld your X account in India under the
country’s Information Technology Act, 2000; the content remains
available elsewhere”.
Reuters could not ascertain if the May 16 email was linked to
Saturday’s account suspension nor could it determine what
specific content the demand referred to, why its removal was
sought or the entity that had lodged the complaint.
While the email did not specify which entity had made the
request or what content they sought to remove, it said X had
been advised that in such cases, a user could contact the
secretary of India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
The secretary, Sanjay Jaju, did not respond to requests
seeking comment.
The 2000 law allows designated government officials to demand
the takedown of content from social media platforms they deem to
violate local laws, including on the grounds of national
security or if a post threatens public order.
X has long been at odds with India’s government over
content-removal requests. In March, the company sued the federal
government over a new government website the company says
expands takedown powers to “countless” government officials.
The case is continuing. India has said X wrongly labelled an
official website a “censorship portal”, as the website only
allows tech companies to be notified about harmful online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Reuters News accounton X was restored in India on Sunday, a day after the socialmedia platform suspended it, citing a legal demand.“At this time, we are no longer withholding access in INDIA toyour account,” X said in an email to the Reuters social mediateam, without elaborating.Representatives for X, Reuters and the Indian government didnot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n