nA day after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology finalised its emergency blocking orders against 177 social media accounts and posts linked to the farmers’ protests, social media giant X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday said it disagrees with these actions in accordance with freedom of speech and expression but will “withhold the accounts and posts in India.”

Elon Musk, owner of X, has said the platform has received orders from the Indian Government to block certain accounts and links. Failure to comply could result in potential penalties for the platform and its employees, including significant fines and imprisonment.

This marks a new flashpoint in the escalating tensions between the social media platform and the Indian Government, with the former having sued the Centre over content-blocking orders in 2022. The ruling last year, however, went against the company. Nevertheless, the Centre is yet to respond to the allegations.

Opposition parties allege that democracy is being “murdered” in the country after the microblogging platform X voiced disagreement with the Centre’s order to block accounts and posts related to ongoing farmers’ protests.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned, “If farmers ask for MSP, shoot them — is this the mother of democracy? When the youth ask for an appointment, then refuse to even listen to them — is this the Mother of Democracy?”

According to sources, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has ordered social media platforms to temporarily block 177 accounts linked to farmers’ protests upon the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“The Indian government has issued executive orders requiring X to act on specific accounts and posts, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment. In compliance with the orders, we will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts,” X said in a statement.

The social media platform noted that a writ appeal challenging the Indian government’s blocking orders remains pending and called for the order to be made public to enhance transparency. “Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” X added.