New Delhi (30/04/2023): Twitter has locked Asian News International’s (ANI) and NDTV’s accounts because they do not match the minimum age requirement to use the microblogging platform. The news was confirmed by ANI Editor Smita Prakash on Saturday.
Currently the news agencies’ Twitter handle displays the phrase ‘This account doesn’t exist’. Prakash tweeted an image of a Twitter email telling her that ANI’s handle has been locked.
The mail sent by Twitter read, “In order to create a Twitter account, you must be at least 13 years old. Twitter has determined that you don’t meet these age requirements, so your account has been locked and will be removed from Twitter.”
Smita Prakash tweeted from her personal Twitter account, she wrote, “So those who follow @ANI bad news, @Twitter has locked out India’s largest news agency which has 7.6 million followers and sent this mail – under 13 years of age! Our gold tick was taken away, substituted with blue tick and now locked out.”
According to its website, South Asia’s leading multimedia news agency has over 100 bureaus across India, South Asia, and throughout the world.
The Twitter account of the Indian news organisation NDTV appears to have been blocked as well. NDTV has yet to provide a statement on the cause for the social media company’s decision.
Users have reported several glitches with Twitter since Elon Musk took over the social media company and laid off thousands of employees. Twitter’s man power has reduced from 7,500 to 1,500. This has lead to questions about the service’s survival with fewer engineer.
