farmers' protests In early February, Twitter refused to comply with orders from the Indian government to ban over a thousand accounts related to farmers' protests. The government threatened Twitter employees with up to seven years of jail if the company fails to remove certain accounts that the government alleged to be spreading misinformation. Subsequently, on 10 February 2021 the company took action on more than 500 accounts and also reduced the visibility of several hashtags that violated Twitter's rules. Twitter also said that accounts belonging to news media outlets, journalists, activists or politicians were not taken down. Later, at the end of the month, the government issued new rules aimed at social media companies to comply with local laws. Under these rules, the social media companies are required to publish a compliance report every month detailing the complaints and the actions they took on them. Government's handling of COVID-19 pandemic In late April, citizens were angry with the government's poor performance in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and took it to social media to express their dissatisfaction. The government has made an emergency order to Twitter to take down tweets from high-profile users that criticised its handling of the pandemic. Twitter has complied and withheld these tweets for users in India. Twitter labelling BJP politicians' tweets In May, Twitter labelled tweets as "manipulated media" from several BJP politicians including Sambit Patra, its spokesperson. In the tweet, he claimed that Congress was using a "toolkit" to derail the government's efforts of handling the pandemic. However, fact-checking has debunked the claim. The government has expressed strong objections over the labels saying Twitter acted prejudicially and asked the company to remove the labels in the interest of "fairness and equity." Subsequently, Delhi Police has visited Twitter's Delhi and Gurgaon offices to seek more information. After an hour, the police has vacated the premises as the offices were closed and no employees were present to engage with. In a statement, the Delhi Police has disputed calling the search event as "raiding." Reportedly, the police did not hold a search warrant. Twitter expressed concerns for its employees, intimidation tactics by the police and potential threat to freedom of expression in India. It also said it was particularly concerned over the rule where the compliance officer, to be set up by social media companies with over five million users under new social media rules, is criminally liable