During an interview on Wednesday with a journalist from BBC that took place on Twitter Spaces, when Musk was asked about the platform complying with the government’s order to take down links of a BBC documentary which critically examined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, he said he was “not sure” about it.

He added, “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”.

Musk was possibly referring to India’s Information Technology Rules, 2021, under which a senior representative of social media companies – called the chief compliance officer – can be potentially jailed for violating the norms.

In 2021, days after Twitter had flagged some posts by ruling party leaders alleging a Congress plot to malign the Prime Minister and the Central Government as “manipulated media”, a team of Delhi Police’s Special Cell — working under the Union Home Ministry — knocked on the doors of Twitter India’s Delhi and Gurgaon offices to ostensibly serve the social media platform a notice.

Even though he took over Twitter promising to uphold the right to free speech, Musk has taken a conservative stand against the company’s ongoing lawsuit against the Indian government over some of its content blocking orders. Musk had earlier said that Twitter’s challenge against some Section 69 (A) orders could jeopardise its business in the country.

Musk, who acquired Twitter for a massive $44 billion last year, also said that running the company has been “quite painful” and “a rollercoaster”. Under him, the company has laid off a majority of its 7,000 workforce in a large scale cost cutting exercise, and experts have said that the platform now ostensibly functions as per the billionaire’s whims rather than thought out policies.