Elon Musk's X suspends some India accounts after order from Modi government

Elon Musk's social media platform X said Thursday it will block certain accounts and posts from India in response to executive orders by the government.

X said it did not agree with the order but failure to comply would subject the company to "potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment."

"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," the Global Government Affairs of the platform said without naming those accounts.

The announcement did not state a reason, but several local media outlets linked the government's executive order to the ongoing farmers' protests.

CNBC has reached out to the country's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for further comments.

Tens of thousands of Indian farmers — mostly from the northern state of Punjab — have been protesting since mid-February in renewed calls for better crop prices which were promised to them in 2021.

They have been marching toward the capital of New Delhi for over a week now, but protests halted on Wednesday after a young protester and others injured in clashes with the police who fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse thousands heading toward Delhi, Reuters reported. 

India's government and X have been at loggerheads for years.

In June, Jack Dorsey — co-founder of Twitter, which was rebranded to X under Musk — claimed the Indian government had threatened to terminate the platform unless it complied with orders to block accounts that criticized how the government handled previous farmer protests. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has refuted the allegations as a "lie."

In October, the Modi government warned Musk that