Guy Adams, Los Angeles bureau chief of U.K. newspaper The Independent, had his Twitter account suspended, supposedly at NBC's request after Adams criticized the network for its Olympic coverage, reports Deadspin.
The message that allegedy got Adams suspended from Twitter was a tweet that included the work email address of Gary Zenkel, President of NBC Olympics and Executive Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for NBC Sports. This supposedly violates a rule in Twitter's terms of service, which reads, "You may not publish or post other people's private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street address or Social Security/National Identity numbers, without their express authorization and permission."
However, as noted by Felix Salmon and linked by Deadspin, Adams' tweet did not technically violate Twitter's terms of service, because Zenkel's email address is neither private or personal, but a public work email address.
The reason for the kerfuffle is that Adams' suspension suspiciously followed a string of anti-NBC tweets, complaining about the network's poor coverage of the 2012 Olympics. Adams' tweets, though now unavailable on Twitter itself due to the suspension, were preserved by Topsy and are available to read in Adams' own account of the ordeal. But with choice quotes such as "Am I alone in wondering why NBColympics think its acceptable to pretend this road race is being broadcast live?" it's not hard to see why NBC wasn't happy with Adams' commentary.
NBC, for its part, did confess to Sports Illustrated reporter Richard Deitsch that the company filed a complaint with Twitter.
Source: Deadspin, The Independent
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