India has reiterated its position on social-media accountability in response to Elon Musk’s pending takeover of Twitter, saying platforms must make checks on users and content even as Twitter in its quarterly earnings reported rise in user base globally.

A change in ownership would make no difference, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s junior Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, said when asked whether he welcomed the tycoon’s promise to uphold free speech on Twitter, according to a Reuters report Thursday.

“Our safety and trust expectations in law and rules require all intermediaries to do due diligence about its users and content to qualify to be an intermediary,” he said.

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment.

Indian government officials said last year social media platforms may no longer be eligible to seek liability exemptions as an intermediaries or the hosts of user content if they failed to comply with local information and technology laws.

Laws announced that took effect last year make social media firms more accountable to requests for swift removal of posts and require them to give details of the originators of messages. The companies must also have mechanisms for addressing grievances.

Musk on Monday reached a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion.

Calling himself a free-speech absolutist, he has criticised Twitter’s content moderation and advocated defeating “spam bots” that send overwhelming amounts of unwanted tweets.

Critics of Indian political parties say they often resort to bots to sway public opinion their way.

Last year, many Indian government ministers moved to domestically developed platform Koo after accusing Twitter of non-compliance with local laws.

Twitter User Base Grows: Twitter Inc. reported stronger than expected user growth in what could be its last quarter as a public company after agreeing to a $44-billion buyout by billionaire Elon Musk, Reuters reported.

But overall revenue and advertising sales fell short of analyst estimates, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The results lay out Musk’s challenges in improving the social media platform’s business to match its influence on news and culture.

Twitter has long faced criticism for its sluggish pace of product launches. Musk has tweeted suggestions ranging from releasing a widely-demanded edit button to making the Twitter algorithm open-source.

Daily active users on Twitter rose to 229 million in the first quarter ended March 31, from 199 million a year earlier. The figure beat analyst expectations of 226.8 million daily active users.

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms also reported a return to user growth on Wednesday, which helped propel social media stocks higher.

Twitter said an internal error resulted in the company overstating quarterly user numbers by about 1.5 million between the fourth quarter of 2020 to the end of 2021. The company said it also overstated the figures in 2019, but was unable to provide data.

Given the pending acquisition, Twitter said it would not provide any forward looking guidance and was withdrawing all previous goals and outlook. The company last year announced it aimed to double annual revenue and grow to 315 million users by 2023, as former CEO Jack Dorsey aimed to signal a reset on years of product stagnation.

Total revenue in the first quarter was $1.2 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.23 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company earns the majority of its revenue from selling digital ads on the website and app. Twitter paused ads in Ukraine and Russia in February amid the ongoing invasion, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”

Musk has said that Twitter should not serve advertising, which would allow the platform to have more control over its content policies.

Advertisers generally prefer strong content moderation, to help prevent their brand from appearing next to unsuitable content.

Its net income rose to $513.3 million, or 61 cents per share, from $68 million, 8 cents per share, a year earlier.