On Saturday, 29th April 2023, Twitter locked the Twitter handle of English news channel NDTV. NDTV shared this information from its other handles named NDTV News Feed and NDTV India. In one of the tweets addressed to Elon Musk and Twitter, NDTV has called itself India’s most-followed English news handle.
A visit to the Twitter account of NDTV shows the error message “This account doesn’t exist. Try searching for another.”
NDTV News Feed tweeted, “We are working with Twitter to restore @ndtv account. Please follow NDTV News Feed for news alerts and updates.”
NDTV India tweeted, “Hi Elon Musk, Twitter has blocked @ndtv (India’s most-followed English news handle). The account has been run by journalists since 2009. Please help restore it. Many thanks, Team NDTV.”
Originally founded by Prannoy Roy, NDTV is now owned by Adani Group, after Adani Enterprises Limited acquired a 27.26% equity stake in NDTV from Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. Before that, Adani Group had acquired 29.18% stack in NDTV after acquiring RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd.
Earlier in the day, two Twitter handles of India’s largest news agency ANI also faced a similar fate, as one account was blocked and another was suspended by Twitter. Twitter has cited the reason of being under the age of 13 for blocking the Twitter handle of ANI. So far, no such reason behind the blocking of the NDTV handle has surfaced.
It is notable that according to Twitter’s policy, a Twitter user should be at least 13 years old when opening up a Twitter account. This is in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the United States, which requires parental consent for online services to collect personal information from children under the age of 13.
Twitter doesn’t have a specific norm for news organizations to open accounts, but the platform encourages organizations to use verified accounts to distinguish themselves from fake accounts and impersonators. To obtain a verified account, news organizations must meet certain eligibility criteria, including providing a confirmed email address, phone number, and website URL. They also need to provide proof of identity and a clear explanation of their brand or organization’s mission.
Additionally, as with individual users, news organizations must comply with Twitter’s terms of service, which prohibit the spread of false or misleading information and other forms of abusive behaviour. Twitter also has specific guidelines for media organizations, which include providing transparency in reporting and avoiding the use of manipulated media or other deceptive tactics.
After Elon Musk took over as the CEO of Twitter, the verified Twitter handle that is a blue tick has been made a paid feature. Since Elon Musk took control of the social media company and reduced staff, users have reported a number of problems with Twitter, raising questions about the service’s viability with fewer engineers.