We reported yesterday that Guy Adams, the Los Angeles bureau chief for The Independent, had his Twitter account suspended after he directed those displeased with NBC‘s London 2012 Olympics coverage to a corporate email address for Gary Zenkel. Twitter responded to Adams’ queries saying that he had violated their privacy policies and NBC had complained. NBC Sport’s Vice President of Communications, Christopher McCloskey, has now told The Telegraph that NBC’s social media department was actually alerted by Twitter.
So, in a somewhat shady turn of events, it was actually Twitter that let NBC know about the tweet. Rather than wait for a complaint to be filed and then investigate the claim, they took it upon themselves to alert the corporate giant behind the Olympics delay that Adams was so critical of on his feed. It’s currently unclear whether this has been policy in the past or if Twitter decided it should give extra attention to their Olympics partner.
Twitter and NBC have a strategic partnership in place for the London 2012 Olympics so any censorship of critics of NBC is going to be highly scrutinized. Whether Adams actually violated the privacy policy by posting a non-private email address is still being debated across the web, though his suspension remains in effect. Adding to this to the fact that Twitter instigated the ban makes things that much more sketchy.
UPDATE 3:14 PM EST: Looks like his account has been reinstated for now.
Oh. My Twitter account appears to have been un-suspended. Did I miss much while I was away?
— Guy Adams (@guyadams) July 31, 2012
Twitter emails to tell me: “we have just received an update from the complainant retracting their original request…”
— Guy Adams (@guyadams) July 31, 2012
“… Therefore your account has been unsuspended.” No further explanation given, or apology offered
— Guy Adams (@guyadams) July 31, 2012
(The Telegraph via The Verge, image credit via Micah Drushal)
- Our first report on Adams being banned after comments critical of NBC on Twitter
- The streaming of the Olympics sounded so promising at first
- This wouldn’t be the first time NBC did odd shady stuff on the Internet
