NEW DELHI: India's technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned U.S. social media firms to abide by the country's laws, a day after a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration and Twitter over content regulation.

The IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called out Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp by name and said they were welcome to operate in India, but only if they play by India's rules.

"You will have to follow the Constitution of India, you will have to abide by the laws of India," said Prasad.

Late last night, India鈥檚 Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has chided Twitter for not complying with its orders to remove certain accounts and content, warning the social media platform that it 鈥渕ust respect鈥� Indian laws 鈥渋rrespective of Twitter鈥檚 own rules and guidelines.鈥� the Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

鈥淲e value freedom and we value criticism because it is part of our democracy. But freedom of expression is not absolute and it is subject to reasonable restrictions" the statement added

Twitter has found itself in a standoff with the government after it refused to fully comply with last week's government order to remove some accounts, including those of news organizations, journalists, activists and politicians, citing its 鈥減rinciples of defending protected speech and freedom of expression.鈥�

The government said the accounts 鈥� unspecified in number 鈥� were using provocative hashtags to spread misinformation about the massive farmer protests that have rattled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration.

Twitter responded by temporarily blocking some of those accounts. It, however, refused to outright suspend them as suggested by the government and imposed restrictions on them only within India. Twitter subsequently restored them after online outrage.

Critics have accused the government of using the protests to escalate a crackdown on free speech.

Twitter's actions appeared to irk Modi's government, which over the years has sought to tighten its grip over social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook. The government served Twitter a non-compliance notice and threatened its officials with a fine and imprisonment of up to seven years for violating the order.

The ministry in its statement said it was disappointed after Twitter 鈥渦nwillingly, grudgingly and with great delay鈥� complied with only parts of the government鈥檚 orders.

It cited Twitter鈥檚 crackdown on accounts after last month鈥檚 Capitol Hill insurrection in the United States, calling it a 鈥渄ifferential treatment鈥� to India. It said what happened in Washington was comparable to the violence at India's Red Fort on Jan. 26 when a group of protesting farmers veered from an agreed protest route and stormed New Delhi鈥檚 17th century monument.

The clampdown on Twitter accounts comes as thousands of farmers have camped outside the capital for months to protest new agricultural laws they say will devastate their earnings. The government says the laws will boost production through private investment.