Photo/Illutration The 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee apologizes for a temporary suspension of its Twitter account on Jan. 24. (Captured from the committee’s Twitter account)

Twitter users seeking 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympics news on the social networking site on Jan. 24 may have been stunned to discover that the official account had been suspended. 

But the suspension was not due to offensive content or the cancellation of the Games due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, an organizing committee staffer's mistaken input put the user account's age at 7 years old, which violated Twitter rules.

Around 10 a.m. on Jan. 24, the staffer added Jan. 24, 2014, the date when the committee was set up, as the date of birth of the user of its Japanese official account, according to a member of the committee.

The system deemed the user to be 7, a violation of the company’s terms of service, which bans those aged under 13 from using the platform, the committee member said.

The account, @Tokyo2020jp, was suspended, and a message saying that it does not exist was posted.

The staff notified Twitter Inc. of the error and the account was restored by late afternoon on Jan. 24, according to the committee member.

The account has more than 350,000 followers and has regularly tweeted information about the Games. The committee posted an apology on the account for causing concern and inconvenience.

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