The X accounts of Chinese state news agency Xinhua, English-language Communist Party media Global Times, and Turkey's TRTWorld were blocked in India as of Wednesday afternoon local time.

The blocked accounts come as India claims misinformation is being spread by foreign media outlets about last week's military clashes with arch-rival Pakistan. 

India and Pakistan reached the brink of war last week with the nuclear-armed nations exchanging missile, drone and shell fire.

Tensions began on April 22 when Islamist extremists killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in a brutal attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of harboring and supporting militants, a charge that Islamabad denies. 

After several strikes from both sides, a  ceasefire was reached on May 10 that is still holding.

India cracks down on 'disinformation'

India and Pakistan have presented starkly different official versions of last week's military clashes, with social media accounts and news organisations in both countries pushing unverified reporting. 

On May 7, The Indian embassy in China on X warned China's Global Times about an article that claimed Pakistan's air force had "shot down another Indian fighter jet in response to overnight airstrikes." The information had been attributed to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

 "We would recommend you verify your facts and cross-examine your sources before pushing out this kind of disinformation," the post said. 

Pakistan claims it shot down five Indian fighter jets. India's military said all its pilots involved in the strikes had returned home safely. 

The embassy further quoted India's Press Information Bureau, which has labelled circulating videos of fallen Indian fighter jets as fake. 

Since the Kashmir crisis erupted, India's government has directed X to block some 8,000 accounts and remove Pakistan-linked content from the digital platform.

Many of these accounts were those of credible Indian news publications like Maktoob Media, The Kashmiriyat ,The Wire and journalists like Anuradha Bhasin, which has drawn criticism from press freedom activists. It is unclear at the moment if the Chinese and Turkish news accounts are part of the 8,000 accounts mentioned above. 

Why is India blocking Chinese, Turkish outlets?

Both China and Turkey are allies of Pakistan. 

During last week's exchanges of fire, Turkey criticized India for its "provocative steps" and "attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure." 

Beijing has offered to mediate the tensions, but has also called Pakistan its "all-weather partner" and said bilateral ties were "ironclad."  

China, which also administers a small part of Kashmir is an economic and territorial rival of India.

As of Wednesday, India's Ministry of Information and Broadcast and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has yet to comment on the withheld accounts.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn