Twitter’s Olympic Moment
Verbal Sparring Gets Heated, and Some Bloggers Are Sent to Sideline as Social Media Join the Games
By SHIRA OVIDE and CHRISTOPHER S. STEWART
The first social media Olympics have become a minefield for the Olympic movement—and especially for Twitter Inc., which has trumpeted its tight connection to the London Games.
Heading into the global sporting event, the International Olympic Committee touted its social-media capabilities and struck partnerships with Twitter, Facebook Inc., FB -6.63% and Google Inc.’s GOOG +0.11% YouTube, among others. Twitter, meanwhile, also played up its partnership with Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA +1.06% NBCUniversal, which is broadcasting the Games.
But since the Games kicked off Friday, the Olympics have become a flash point for social media run amok.
The biggest brouhaha so far erupted on Monday and Tuesday, when a finger-pointing spat emerged over a journalist getting booted off Twitter after he was critical of NBC’s Olympics coverage. The journalist was reinstated on the short-messaging service Tuesday—but not before the blogosphere lit up with criticism over whether Twitter was curtailing free speech. Twitter apologized for what it said were its missteps in the incident.
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444405804577561211511205968.html
Perhaps, they are right even our Ridgewood blog failed to cover the games.
JF, can we upgrade some of the coverage of the games here? Politics just keep losing readers.
Give it a try.