Social Media on Lockdown at the Winter Olympics

At this years winter olympics in Sochi, Russia, the use of social media by athletes will be heavily restricted, due to new rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee. Taylor Soper writing for geekwire.com elaborated on some of these new restrictions involving the use of social media. 

First off, athletes are prohibited from sharing audio or video. While they can post written messages and pictures of their experience, it is expected that they are in first person, diary type formate and that they do not "assume the role of a journalist, reporter or any other media capacity.” When summarizing most of the new ruled being imposed, some have chose to use the word “ridiculous.”

I completely agree that rules limiting the social media output by athletes is over the top. People were looking forward to seeing and feeling the excitement of the winter games thorough the social media accounts of the athletes themselves. Social media as a whole has recently become an essential part of the world of athletics itself. However, many speculate that the new rules were set in place to prevent athletes bashing the conditions and setup of the games in Sochi, which has become a hot topic due to the conditions in Russia.

Whether or not the new rules were put into place to help shield the reputation of Sochi is true, there is one conclusions that is a fact. That is, that athletes will have to be worried about getting in trouble with the olympic committee before they tweet or interact with social media of any kind and this is sure to influence the quality of the social media interaction between athletes and their fans. Thus, the real time news that olympic athletes can provide us with directly from the games will be limited.

Check out the article: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/free-speech-issue-athletes-sochi-arent-allowed-post-pictures-videos-social-media/