X accounts of Reuters, TRT World, Global Times restored in India

NEW DELHI: The X accounts of UK-based news agency Reuters, Turkish broadcaster TRT World, and China’s English language newspaper Global Times were restored in India on Sunday evening, a day after users were unable to access them.

Earlier in the day, the Centre intervened, stating that the Indian government had not sought to withhold the Reuters account on the social media platform X, and “working with X to resolve the problem”.

An official spokesperson for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said, “There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold Reuters handle. We are continuously working with X to resolve the problem”.

Earlier, people in India were unable to access the X handle of Reuters with a message stating that its account has been withheld in India “in response to a legal demand.” Users who attempted to access the Reuters account in India encountered the message — “Account withheld. @ Reuters has been withheld in IN in response to a legal demand”. The X handles of TRT World and Global Times also encountered the same “account withheld” message.

On its help centre page, the Elon Musk-owned platform X explained that such messages “about country withheld content” mean that X was compelled to withhold the entire account specified or posts in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order or local laws.

“If you see the above message, it means X withheld content based on local law(s) in response to a report filed through specific support intake channels”, the social media platform said. (ANI)