Over 8,000 X accounts blocked in India; The Wire says will challenge site blocking

The blockings come as several Pakistani handles, and a handful of Indian ones, have been withheld in India

Over 8,000 accounts, apparently most of them Pakistani, on the X platform, formerly Twitter, have been withheld in India. The announcement came from X’s Global Government Affairs handle late Thursday (May 8, 2025) evening. Through Thursday (May 8, 2025) and Friday (May 9, 2025), some Indian accounts on X, such as the ones belonging to New Delhi-based news portal Maktoob News, Srinagar-based journalist Anuradha Bhasin, and political content creator Arpit Sharma, were also withheld.

News portal The Wire has also been blocked, the site said on its social media handle, vowing to challenge the blocking order. The site continued to be available on some carriers and ISPs on Friday (May 8, 2025) evening, as website blockings do not generally become apparent immediately across all networks, and take time to propagate to all telecom operators and internet service providers.  

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The actions come across social media and video sharing platforms — including Instagram and YouTube — as the government seeks to stamp out disinformation regarding Operation Sindoor and its aftermath. Several Pakistani government handles, at least those that had not already been “withheld” in India, have been blocked for Indian users.

X disagrees with orders, account withheld

X said that it disagreed with the orders, but indicated that it wasn’t in a position to challenge the orders legally like the users who were actually affected. The account through which X posted this statement, belonging to its Global Government Affairs team, was itself withheld shortly after it made this post. After the account withheld that particular post on the 8,000 impacted accounts — which it did not list — its other posts were visible again on Friday (May 8, 2025) morning.

Kashmiri news organisations have also been impacted, with Anantnag-based The Kashmiriyat and Srinagar-based Free Press Kashmir’s X handles withheld. The veteran journalist Anuradha Bhasin’s account has also been blocked from view in India. The account of Muzamil Jaleel, a New Delhi-based journalist, has also been withheld.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which regulates online news sites under the IT Rules, 2021, also did not announce a blocking of The Wire, or respond to a query on the site’s inaccessibility.

“We are taking all necessary steps to challenge this arbitrary and inexplicable move,” The Wire said in its statement. “We protest this blatant censorship at a critical time for India when sane, truthful, fair and rational voices and sources of news and information are among the biggest assets that India has.”

Didn’t receive justification to block accounts: X

“For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts,” X said. “Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.”

On YouTube and Instagram too, Pakistani news and entertainment channels have been blocked. YouTube channel 4PM News and that of Dr. Medusa, a Kolkata-based influencer, were also blocked. After the apparent removal of some content on the latter’s channel, it is available again.

Published - May 09, 2025 01:16 am IST