Even as India’s technology minister said on Wednesday that the US social media giants must obey the laws of his country, where they are doing brisk business without directly naming Twitter,  the state of Uttar Pradesh challenged in the Supreme Court a bar on police action against Twitter’s country head, Manish Maheshwari, after a lower court protected him against arrest over an accusation that the platform had been used to spread hate, Reuters reported from New Delhi and Lucknow.

The comments by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad follow accusations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that Twitter Inc. had violated rules requiring it to appoint new compliance officers.

“You operate in India, you make good money in India … but you will take the position that ‘I will only be governed by laws of America’ … This is plainly not acceptable,” Prasad said during the India Global Forum 2021 event.

“You have to be accountable to India’s constitution and India’s laws,” Prasad added.

The minister also objected to a recent brief block imposed by Twitter on his account for a tweet he issued years ago, as it violated US laws, saying the platform must then also obey Indian laws.

Industry executives say India’s tussle with Twitter, coupled with discontent over increasing regulatory scrutiny of other US digital giants such as Facebook’s WhatsApp and Amazon, has soured the business environment in a growth market.

WhatsApp has 530 million users while Facebook has 410 million in India — their top market by users globally, while Twitter has 18 million users.

As acrimony grows with Indian authorities, Twitter faces at least five police cases in different Indian States. Its non-compliance with new rules raised suggestions that Twitter may no longer enjoy legal protection in India over content posted by users.  

On Wednesday, the northern State of Uttar Pradesh challenged in the Supreme Court a bar on police action against Twitter’s country head, Manish Maheshwari, after a lower court in the State of Karnataka protected him against arrest over an accusation that the platform had been used to spread hate.

Police in Uttar Pradesh, ruled by PM Modi’s party, issued summons this month to Maheshwari over a video that they said had incited “hate and enmity” between Hindu and Muslim communities.

Twitter and police in Uttar Pradesh declined to comment. Maheshwari did not respond to Reuters request for comments.

Cases Against Twitter & It’s Country-head’s Plea: When Maheshwari approached the lower court, he argued that the investigation concerned content on the Twitter platform, which is run by Twitter Inc., a company “incorporated under the laws of the United States of America”, according to a court filing seen by Reuters but not made public.

Twitter’s Indian unit had no role in “operation and management of the said platform”, the filing added.

Other cases arose from complaints that some politically sensitive regions were depicted as outside India in a map on Twitter’s careers website, or that child pornography was visible on its platform.

Twitter has not commented on the map cases. On Tuesday, it said it had a policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation of children.

Police in India have registered three new cases against Twitter Inc. for allegedly hurting sentiments and promoting child pornography, marking an escalation in the row between the U.S. firm and Indian authorities.

Police in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have named Twitter India chief Manish Maheshwari in complaints after the politically sensitive regions were depicted outside a map of India on its careers website.

Late on Tuesday, police in the capital New Delhi said in a statement they have registered a case against Twitter for “availability of child sexual abuse and child pornographic material” on its platform.