Elon Musk-owned social media platform Twitter blocked and later restored the main handles of domestic media agencies ANI and NDTV claiming that owner of both the accounts was less than 13 years of age and therefore could now be allowed to be on the platform.

A quick search for both handles showed a notification of the accounts not existing on Twitter. It was not immediately clear as to why these accounts were suspended. As per the platform’s policies, account holders must be at least 13 years old to create and operate a handle on Twitter.

These accounts were later restored.

ANI’s Twitter account appears to be functioning now. Inconvenience regretted for the temporary outage. pic.twitter.com/iP6DV0dyGq

— ANI (@ANI) April 29, 2023

Mails sent to Twitter seeking to know the reasons behind the suspension of the accounts did not yield an appropriate response.

Earlier on Tuesday, Twitter disclosed that it asked users to take down over 6.5 million pieces of content in the first half of 2022 before Musk took over. The company also said it had received 53,000 legal requests from governments during the first half of 2022 to remove certain content. Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and India were among the countries that submitted most of these requests.

Last year in October, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion after reneging on his initial proposal of April. The multi-billionaire, who is also one of the richest people on Earth, has claimed that Twitter is not utilising its full potential as a platform and that it would do so under him.

To cut costs at the company, Musk has also fired close to 80% of the staff, including nearly all in India.

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