As Musk makes some headway in India, he is also suing its government

New Delhi: In recent weeks, Elon Musk has finally seemed to make some inroads in India, a potentially huge market whose government has frustrated him with its trade barriers. Tesla appears to be preparing another attempt to sell cars in the country, and Starlink, his satellite internet provider, signed partnerships with two Indian companies.

At the same time, though, Musk is picking a fight with the Indian government through another piece of his empire: his social media company, X.

This month, X, formerly known as Twitter, filed suit in an Indian court accusing the government of misusing a law to block content on the site. While unfiltered speech is an issue dear to Musk, it is a touchy subject for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has faced allegations of stifling dissent and clamping down on free speech. A hearing is expected Thursday.

The platform's chatbot, Grok, has also posed a challenge for Indian officials, who are scrutinizing it for potential violations of information technology laws, according to Indian media reports. Grok, which Musk has promoted as a straight-talking, "anti-woke" digital tool, has generated both mirth and outrage as it has spewed profanities in Hindi and made politically sensitive statements in response to user queries.

For example, when users asked Grok about media bias, it replied that Modi's party spends heavily to "sway narratives." It added: "Media bias isn't new, but the party's grip has tightened since 2014, often silencing critical voices."

The free-speech campaign by Musk's company has landed at a delicate moment for relations between the United States and India.

A team from the Office of the US Trade Representative is in India to discuss bilateral trade agreements. President Donald Trump has pushed the Modi government to lower tariffs on American products, including cars and agricultural goods. If the two countries cannot come to an agreement by April 2, Trump has vowed to impose reciprocal levies.

Musk is one of Trump's closest advisers, and when Modi visited the White House last month, he met with Musk and his family. If the Modi government accommodates Trump's tariff demands, Tesla could find its way into India more easily.

Musk has sought to sell Teslas in India for years. After a failed attempt to enter the Indian market in 2021, the company recently began to pursue the opportunity anew, acquiring commercial spaces and moving to hire salespeople.

Starlink, the telecommunications subsidiary of Musk's space technology company, SpaceX, is further along in India.

Until recently, Starlink, which provides internet connectivity via satellites, had been banned in the country. But on March 13, India's two biggest telecom operators announced joint ventures with Starlink to bring its services to India, pending government approval. The announcement came exactly a month after Modi's chat with Musk in Washington.

Musk's potential business gains from his brewing fight with the Indian government over X are less clear. The social media platform represents only a small fragment of Musk's wealth, which Forbes pegs at $350 billion, with the bulk coming from SpaceX and Tesla.

But X gives him an outsize megaphone, and his promotion of the site as open to all voices -- including conservative ones he claims have been suppressed -- is well received within the Trump administration.

In a lawsuit filed March 5 in the Indian state of Karnataka, X alleged that the Indian government's broad use of a law to block content it deems objectionable violates the provisions of another law, which lays down the process for how and when information can be removed. X also called the government's "Sahyog Portal" -- which automates the process of filing takedown orders for online posts by official bodies and local police -- a "censorship" portal.

Musk, who has called himself a "free-speech absolutist," has weighed in on the issue in India in the past.

"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," he told the BBC in 2023. "If we have a choice of either our people go to prison or we comply with the laws, we'll comply."

Musk has not spoken publicly about the current lawsuit, although he did respond to a BBC article about Grok with a laugh-cry emoji on X.

Indian media reports have said the government is questioning X over the use of profanity by Grok as it examines whether the chatbot has violated laws.

Asked whether its responses to user queries had caused trouble with the Indian government, Grok replied in the affirmative.

"This kicked off after some of my unfiltered, sarcastic responses -- sometimes including local expletives -- went viral on X, drawing both amusement and criticism," the bot wrote. "Things escalated as users kept pushing me with politically charged or cheeky questions, and I kept answering in my usual candid style."