In a welcome about-face Tuesday morning, Twitter restored the account of journalist Guy Adams, who posted a series of critical comments about NBC's handling of the Olympics. <\/p>\n
\"Oh,\" Adams wrote in his first tweet since his account was suspended Sunday. \"My Twitter account appears to have been un-suspended. Did I miss much while I was away?\" <\/p>\n
Adams followed up by saying that Twitter informed him via e-mail that NBC had retracted its original complaint. <\/p>\n
While it's encouraging to hear NBC backed away - even if it required an enormous online backlash - it remains disturbing that Twitter revoked the account in the first place. <\/p>\n
Let's be perfectly clear: Twitter suspended a user for committing an act of journalism. <\/p>\n
The mind-boggling move undermines the San Francisco startup's credibility as a supposed advocate of open communications, and whittles away the goodwill of professional and citizen journalists who are the lifeblood of the service. <\/p>\n
In a series of tweets in recent days, Adams colorfully assailed, among other things, NBC's ridiculous decision to force West Coast viewers to watch the Olympics on a time delay, presumably so the network could charge prime-time advertising rates. <\/p>\n
It's been an infuriating experience for fans who can't duck the spoilers blasting at them from all quarters of the Internet. Adams, a correspondent for London's Independent newspaper, simply supplied them an appropriate outlet for those frustrations in the tweet that supposedly got his account deactivated. <\/p>\n
\"The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com<\/a>\" <\/p>\n Twitter told Adams that tweet violated their terms of service by posting private information, specifically NBC Olympics President Zenkel's e-mail address. But that flimsy explanation falls down under the lightest scrutiny. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Link: In a welcome about-face Tuesday morning, Twitter restored the account of journalist Guy Adams, who posted a series of critical comments about NBC's handling of the Olympics. \"Oh,\" Adams wrote in his first tweet since his account was suspended Sunday. Continue reading
\nTwitter undermines free speech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"