Twitter 'unsuspends' journalist's account

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 1 August 2012

Twitter has lifted the suspension of British journalist Guy Adams' account after backlash regarding its ties with NBC during the Olympics. The incident highlights ongoing concerns about media freedoms and the impact of corporate partnerships on social media policies.

Summary

Twitter apologized Tuesday for suspending the account of a British journalist in an incident which prompted accusations it favored its commercial ties with Olympics broadcaster NBC over media freedoms.

Twitter's response came after an outcry over the suspension of Guy Adams, Los Angeles correspondent for The Independent, who had tweeted his outrage over NBC's delay in broadcasting the opening ceremony in order to catch the primetime audience.

Twitter's general counsel Alex McGillivray said the suspension stemmed from the social media site's "Trust and Safety policies," which prompted the company to look into the publication of an NBC executive's email account.

"We want to apologize for the part of this story that we did mess up," McGillivray wrote on the Twitter blog.

He added that "the account has been unsuspended, and we will actively work to ensure this does not happen again."

Twitter said it took the action after its monitors learned of the disclosure of the NBC executive's email address, which some consider "private" information - which would be a violation of the site's rules.

"The team working closely with NBC around our Olympics partnership did proactively identify a tweet that was in violation of the Twitter Rules and encouraged them to file a support ticket with our Trust and Safety team to report the violation, as has now been reported publicly," McGillivray said.

"We do not proactively report or remove content on behalf of other users no matter who they are. This behavior is not acceptable and undermines the trust our users have in us.

"We should not and cannot be in the business of proactively monitoring and flagging content, no matter who the user is -- whether a business partner, celebrity or friend."

News that Adams's account was restored came just ahead of Twitter's comments.

"Oh. My Twitter account appears to have been un-suspended. Did I miss much while I was away?" he tweeted.

Twitter and NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp., have what the companies say is a strategic, non-financial partnership for online content during the Olympics.

But Twitter's handling of the matter raised a howl of protests from analysts saying the company was failing to live up to its obligations to protect the free flow of information.- AFP
 

KEY POINTS:

• Twitter unsuspended Guy Adams' account after a public outcry.
• The suspension was related to the disclosure of an NBC executive's email.
• Twitter's policies faced criticism for prioritizing commercial interests over media freedoms.
• The incident raises questions about the balance between trust and safety on social media.
• Twitter officials assured that such incidents should not recur.