Twitter blocks popular Indian news wire agency ANI's account, citing "under 13 years of age" reason

The popular Indian news wire agency, Asian News International (ANI), has been blocked by Twitter for being “under 13 years of age”. The ban was revealed by the news agency’s editor Smita Prakash on her personal Twitter handle. She shared a screenshot of the email sent by Twitter, which stated that the account was blocked for being “under 13 years of age”.

ANI’s Twitter account had 7.6 million followers, making it India’s largest news agency on the platform. Prakash expressed her disappointment and concern over the matter, stating that the account’s gold tick was taken away and replaced with a blue tick before being locked out completely. She also mentioned that the account of Elon Musk was also locked out.

The email sent by Twitter informed ANI that its account had been locked as Twitter determined that it did not meet the age requirements of at least 13 years old to create a Twitter account. The email also stated that the account would be removed from Twitter.