Twitter blocks account of Indian news agency ANI, gives absurd reason

Twitter has blocked Asian News International (ANI), a well-known Indian news agency, for being “under 13 years of age.” The editor of the news organisation, Smita Prakash, announced the ban on her personal Twitter account. She posted a photo of the email that Twitter had received, in which it was noted that the account had been disabled because the user was “under 13 years of age.”

India’s largest news organisation on Twitter was ANI, which has 7.6 million followers. The gold tick on the account was removed, replaced with a blue tick, and then the account was fully locked out, according to Prakash, who expressed her disappointment and worry over the situation. She also mentioned that Elon Musk’s account had been shut out.

Twitter notified ANI via email that its account had been locked because it did not fulfil the minimum age restriction of 13 years old to register for a Twitter account. Additionally, the account would be deleted from Twitter, according to the email.