Tweet Delete

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arlier this year Twitter received a great deal of criticism following its announcement that it would be censoring tweets in certain countries in order to comply with the laws of those countries (examples would authorities in Germany and France not allowing pro-Nazi tweets, because making pro-Nazi statements is against the law). Although not a terrible policy, it did raise the concerns of many free speech advocates who felt the policy might be used as a tool for government censorship. But now Twitter has suspended the account of a British journalist who was critical of NBC’s Olympic coverage, and just about everyone is crying foul.

Adams isn’t the only one who’s been critical of NBC’s Olympic coverage, but according to Twitter his account wasn’t suspended because he pissed off the NBC brass.

Guy Adams is a Los Angeles-based journalist working for the UK Independent, and via Twitter he heaped much scorn upon NBC for their decision to time-delay the Olympics yet air them as if they were happening live.

Adams isn’t the only one who’s been critical of NBC’s Olympic coverage, but according to Twitter his account wasn’t suspended because he pissed off the NBC brass. In one tweet, Adams suggested that anyone unhappy with NBC should let its feelings be known to NBC’s executive in charge of the network’s Olympic coverage, Gary Zenkel. In that tweet, Adams included Zenkel’s email address, which Twitter claims is a violation of their Terms of Use.

Only it’s not, because the email address Adams posted is Zenkel’s corporate email, which has previously been published on the internet. That means it’s not a private email, which Twitter’s TOS does prohibit users from publishing.

To make matters worse, there have been reports that Twitter alerted NBC to Adams’ tweets and instructed them how to file a complaint. That certainly gives the impression that Twitter was protecting NBC’s reputation rather than enforcing a TOS violation. And now that Twitter has reinstated Adams’ account—with an apology—it’s hard to know who comes out looking worse in this debacle, Twitter or NBC.

Twitter sent Adams an email informing him of his reinstatement that said, "We have just received an update from the complainant retracting their original request."

Adams immediately took to Twitter. “Oh. My Twitter account appears to have been un-suspended. Did I miss much while I was away?”