Twitter criticised for banning Olympics protest account
Twitter’s controversial decision to block the account of a group pledged to mount a series of protests against the Olympics this summer has provoked shock amongst social media agencies, amongst them We Are Social.
Commenting on the move Robin Grant, global managing director of the agency, said: “I'm shocked Twitter kowtowed to LOCOG by suspending the @spacehijackers account. It's good news that they've since relented, but bad news that @spacehijackers has been forced to remove their parody ‘the Official Protesters of the London 2012 Olympic Games’ branding.
“Twitter has specific guidelines for 'Parody, Commentary and Fan Accounts', and its seems that despite following these @spacehijackers have been subject to account suspension due to political pressure from LOCOG.
“Twitter has a proud history of being a conduit for political protest, and we all remember the parody @BPGlobalPR account that was allowed to build an audience of 150,000 followers despite breaking BP's trademarks during the Deepwater Horizon crisis.
“More recently Twitter stood up for its users by challenging a US Court order to release one users data. But in this instance Twitter has been inconsistent with its previous position and let its users down by taking this politically motivated action.”