Updated 2:34 p.m. ET
The curious case of a British newspaper journalist’s suspension from Twitter over critical Olympics comments deepened Tuesday. An NBC executive told The Daily Telegraph that the social media company actually alerted the network to the disparaging tweets and gave instructions on how to file a complaint.
“Our social media dept was actually alerted to it by Twitter and then we filled out the form and submitted it,” NBC Sports’ Vice President of Communications Christopher McCloskey told the Telegraph. Neither NBC nor Twitter responded to TPM’s requests for comment.
Guy Adams, the Independent’s Los Angeles bureau chief, went on a Twitter tear against NBC’s Olympics coverage, criticizing the network for broadcasting events in the U.S. with a time delay. “Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldn’t he?” Adams tweeted. He also posted NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel’s corporate email address — apparently Adams’ most odious offense.
“It is a violation of the Twitter Rules to post the private and confidential information of others,” Twitter reportedly told Adams. Zenkel’s email is, in fact, publicly listed on NBC’s media contacts page.
Adams on Tuesday wrote that there is “no end in sight” to his suspension. He also pointed out that NBC and Twitter have an official partnership. NBC’s Olympics page features a “Twitter Tracker” widget to stay connected to the games.
In a sort-of plea to Twitter to access his account, Adams raised questions about the company alerting NBC to his tweets. “Surely this runs against everything your company is supposed to represent? And surely it completely undermines Twitter’s entire raison d’etre, corporate ethos, etc? … I don’t know exactly where I’m meant to go from here, except to say that I really would like a proper explanation of how and why my Twitter account has been suspended.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, @guyadams was back to tweeting:
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 emailed Adams to say the “complainant” retracted the original request and his account is unsuspended.
An NBC Sports spokesperson told TPM that “our interest was in protecting our executive, not suspending the user from Twitter. We didn’t initially understand the repercussions of our complaint, but now that we do, we have rescinded it.”
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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