'The Wire' website blocked in India on government orders
What's the story
India's news portal, The Wire, has said that its website has been blocked by Internet service providers (ISPs) across the country. The site has claimed that the action was taken at the behest of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the IT Act, 2000. It denounced the government's move as an infringement of press freedom assured under the Constitution. The news portal termed the move arbitrary and inexplicable and vowed to fight it.
Censorship response
The Wire condemns government's censorship
"We protest this blatant censorship at a critical time for India when sane, truthful, fair....rational voices and sources of news and information are among the biggest assets that India has," The Wire said. The website was opening normally for some as of Friday afternoon. Another website, Maktoob Media, has also stated that its X account has been withheld. "We have no knowledge of the reason for the government's arbitrary action. It is an assault on press freedom," the site said.
Social media restrictions
X restricts access to over 8,000 accounts in India
On Thursday, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) said it will block over 8,000 accounts in India following the government's order. This includes those of several users and news outlets, including Maktoob Media, The Kashmiriyat, and Free Press Kashmir. "In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India's local laws. For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts," X said.
Twitter Post
Read X's response here
X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees. The orders include demands to block access in India to…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) May 8, 2025