Comply with India’s ‘strict’ laws or go to jail? It’s an easy choice, says Elon Musk

Twitter chief Elon Musk on Wednesday said it is not possible for the social media platform to offer the same freedom of speech to users in India that it does in the US and other Western countries.

Speaking to a BBC journalist in an interview on Twitter Spaces, Musk said that some rules related to social media were “quite strict” in India and he is not aware of “what exactly happened” when Twitter took down content related to a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year.

“The rules in India for what can appear on social media are quite strict, and we can’t go beyond the laws of a country...if we have a choice of either our people go to prison, or we comply with the laws, we'll comply with the laws,” he said.

Musk didn't specify which Indian laws he was referring to, but the statement was an admission that Twitter blocks and censures content in India, that if it doesn't comply with the government orders, its employees might end up going to jail.

The government had ordered Twitter to take down more than 50 tweets linked to the controversial BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi which was banned by the Indian government.

The government, in several instances, has asked Twitter to act on content, including tweets supportive of an independent Sikh state, farm protests, and those criticising the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.