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Olympics fans and athletes face social media ban

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By John Glenday, Reporter

April 18, 2012 | 2 min read

Contestants and audiences at the upcoming Olympic Games face having their social media activity being severely curtailed after it emerged that fans are to be barred from sharing Facebook photos or YouTube videos of the action.

Athletes face even stricter sanctions with the possibility of prosecution being broached unless they abide by instructions not to tweet photos of themselves with products which aren’t official Olympic sponsors.

Business owners are also being warned to resist the temptation to draw custom by appropriating Olympics nomenclature such as “2012 Games”.

It follows reports that Olympics organisers have been busy scrutinising every inch of the Games site for rogue logos to cover them up or remove them ahead of the starting gun being fired.

Speaking to the guardian Paul Jordan, an expert specialising in Olympics sponsorship law, said: “On a very literal reading of the terms and conditions, there’s certainly an argument that the IOC could run that you wouldn’t be able to post pictures to Facebook.

“I think what they are trying to avoid is any formal commercial exploitation of those images, but that’s not what it says. And for that reason, it would appear that if you or I attended an event, we could only share our photos with our aunties around the kitchen table. Which seems a bizarre consequence.”

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