'You must be at least 13 years old,' Twitter suspends ANI news agency's account; NDTV also suspended

Twitter has suspended the handle of one of India's largest news agencies, ANI, citing a violation of Twitter rules due to the account being less than 13 years old. ANI's editor, Smita Prakash, took to Twitter to inform their followers of the situation. The news agency has around 7.6 million followers on its handle and was previously recognised as an official organisation on the social media platform, carrying the coveted golden tick.

Later in the day, Twitter also locked another new media, NDTV's official handle. The media news outlet has seemingly not been given any reason for the account being locked. However, the NDTV team has tweeted on another handle, stating that they are working with Twitter to restore their official account. At present, NDTV is yet to release an official statement regarding the account being locked, and the reason behind this issue is yet to be disclosed.

NDTV took to Twitter to address the CEO of the platform, Elon Musk. In their tweet, NDTV claimed that the account had been run by journalists since 2009. If one attempts to visit NDTV's official handle on Twitter, they are greeted with the message "This account doesn't exist. Try searching for another" on the home page. 

This move by Twitter has caused frustration and confusion for ANI, NDTV and its followers.

Smita Prakash expressed her disappointment in a tweet, saying that Twitter has locked out India's largest news agency. She also added that their golden tick was taken away and replaced with a blue tick before being locked out.

ANI has confirmed that its other Twitter handle, @ani_digital, is still active, and the agency will be tweeting all news from its other verified handles until the main ANI handle is restored. It is unclear at this time how long the suspension will last, and what specific rule ANI has violated.

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