Athletes taking part in the London 2012 Olympics have been told they will be allowed to blog and post on Twitter, however could potentially been thrown out if they breach the guidelines.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines state that the competitors must write ‘first person’ ‘diary-type entries’, and not act as reporters. They have also released a ’2012 Social Media Etiquette’, stating postings must be ‘dignified and in good taste’ and ‘not contain vulgar or obscene words or images’. Although the strict guidelines, the IOC are actively encouraging and supporting athletes to take part in social media and to post, blog and tweet their experiences.
Athletes will be able to upload photographs taken during events and venues, which was something that was banned during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The broadcast of video and audio taken inside Olympic venues will be banned but athletes will be allowed to post videos taken elsewhere. The athletes have also been advised that they cannot use the official Olympics symbol, and reference to the word ‘Olympic’ must be factual and not used to promote any third party products or services.
There is no doubt that this will be great exposure and publicity for the Olympics, let’s just hope they haven’t shot themselves in the foot by encouraging this, and that everything will be ready on time to avoid the athletes posting negative tweets from the word GO…
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