The Indian government has ordered billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to block specific accounts and links; if this order is not followed, the platform and its staff may be subject to severe fines and jail time.

Given that the social media company sued the Central government in 2022 over content-blocking orders, this represents a new hot spot in the growing conflict between the government of India and the platform. But last year’s decision was not in the company’s favour. In an early-morning post on Thursday, X’s government affairs handle stated that although it was observing New Delhi’s blocking orders, it “disagrees” with its actions.

“We feel that publicising executive orders is crucial for transparency, but we cannot publish them due to legal restrictions. The post stated that “this lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making.”

“X has been issued executive orders by the Indian government mandating that he act on specific accounts and posts. Failure to comply may result in severe penalties, such as imprisonment and substantial fines,” X stated. “We disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts. However, we will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone in compliance with the orders.

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According to a senior official in the IT Ministry, the government is examining X’s statement and will respond shortly. According to the company, users whose accounts were affected by the government’s orders received the following notice: “In line with our stance, a writ appeal contesting the Indian government’s blocking orders is still pending. In compliance with our policies, we have also notified the affected users of these actions.

Over the past five years, the platform has experienced difficulties with various stakeholders, including civil society, conservative organisations, the opposition, and the centre. With almost 30 million users, the microblogging platform has found significant success in India.

The most recent argument reminds us of the platform and the Indian government’s growing hostilities during the 2021 farmers’ protest. The Center had requested that the company remove nearly 1,200 accounts due to purported ties to “Khalistan” during the height of those protests. Before that, it had asked that more than 250 accounts—including those of journalists covering the protests—be removed from the platform.

The IT ministry was displeased because X had responded by blocking some of the accounts and then unblocking them. Later, Twitter informed the Indian government that it would not censor the accounts of Indian journalists, activists, or politicians, citing the platform’s freedom of speech.

Nonetheless, the government took issue with the response, stating that the platform could not “assume the role of a court and justify non-compliance”.

As part of the purge, X had given in to pressure and blocked several accounts, including the one of Sukhram Singh Yadav, the leader of the SP and current Rajya Sabha MP. With 244 followers on Twitter at the time, Yadav had been outspoken about the farmer protests in his posts, utilising hashtags like #singhuborder and #kisanektajindabad.

After acquiring the business, Musk referred to Indian regulations as “strict”. It declared that he would follow the government’s blocking orders sooner than risk putting Twitter employees in jail. He was referring to the IT Rules 2021, which provide for the possible imprisonment of the chief compliance officer, a senior representative of social media companies, for breaking the rules.