In a strange development on Saturday, 29th April 2023, a Twitter handle of the news agency ANI (Asian News International) was suspended and another was blocked. Twitter has cited the reason for blocking one account @ANI as being below 13 years of age in a mail. ANI’s Smita Prakash tweeted a screenshot of this mail from her Twitter handle.
In her tweet, Smita Prakash wrote, “So those who follow, there is 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 a blue tick and now locked out.” Smita Prakash also tagged Elon Musk in her tweet.
When searching the account of ANI_News, the result shows the account is suspended.
And while searching for the account @ANI showed that it does not exist, which means it has been blocked by Twitter. While @ANI was removed for allegedly being underaged according to Twitter, the reason for suspending the other account @ANI_News is not known.
However, other Twitter handles of ANI like ANI Hindi, ANI Digital, ANI MP-Rajasthan, ANI UP-Uttarakhand etc. were running properly. More than five decades have passed since the establishment of ANI. ANI, which claims to be the ‘leading multimedia news agency of South Asia’, has more than 100 bureaus worldwide.
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.
Update: Later in the day, the Twitter handle @ANI was restored, and it became available on the platform with its follower count intact. “ANI’s Twitter account appears to be functioning now. Inconvenience regretted for the temporary outage,” the official handle of ANI tweeted after the account was restored.
However, the other Twitter account ANI_News remains suspended.