I ended up in Twitter jail because I congratulated American track star Courtney Okolo on her new national record. I had covered Okolo in the past, and when she accelerated to victory at the Millrose Games in February, I posted the final 13 seconds of her 500m race along with my congratulations. You might think USA Track & Field, an organization that is drowned out by the big sports leagues when the Olympics aren’t on, wouldn’t mind the publicity. Instead, my Twitter account was suspended – and was only restored this month.
It is not just Twitter that has adopted this tactic: Facebook and Instagram also bans users for posting sports highlights. Thanks to the antiquated Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), legislation signed by Bill Clinton in 1998 to protect the copyright of movies and later music online, prominent sports leagues around the world have abused the law. And they have caused misery for fans.
The NFL, MLB, some of the major European soccer leagues, the IOC, the ATP World Tour and American college sports conferences like the ACC have been on a copyright takedown frenzy. Though DMCA takedowns on YouTube began the obsession with companies “protecting their games’ footage” almost a decade ago, the crackdown has been exacerbated by the rise of platforms like Twitter. A full-on trampling of “fair use” rights with simple captions haven’t stopped these fools from upsetting people. To make matters worse, if your account is suspended, the process of getting to speak to an actual human being to plead your case is byzantine, to say the least.
It’s bad enough that suspensions, because of copyright takedowns, happen to fans who have built up big followings and new friends online. But for a journalist whose career revolves around using Twitter for contacts for stories, connections to jobs and other career prospects, having your account unexpectedly suspended for doing your job, by analyzing or commentating on a highlight, can compromise one’s livelihood.
And it’s not just modest media figures like me who suffer. Prominent websites such as Deadspin, SB Nation and Barstool Sports have seen their Twitter accounts suspended, largely thanks to the NFL – only for those sites to quickly get their accounts back once their lawyers intervened. Despite my being verified on Twitter, I wasn’t as lucky in getting my account back so swiftly. I, along with many others, simply don’t have the money to get a team of lawyers on the case.
It is, of course, understandable that sports organizations – who rely on TV deals to keep them afloat – don’t want entire games broadcast by a teenager on Twitter. But they could use common sense. Sports leagues could look to the NBA to see how to handle the issue. Once the league realized chasing after every random Twitter egg that posted a LeBron James lay-up was a waste of time, it had the sense to let the issue go. In fact, highlights uploaded to thousands of accounts are effectively free advertising. Instead of adopting the moronic approach of their competitors, the NBA has been rewarded by allowing fans to post highlights on Twitter and Facebook.
Lucrative TV deals made with Turner Sports’ TNT and Disney’s ESPN may not have been possible without fans being able to share and discuss, without retribution, the latest extraordinary dunk by LeBron or ridiculous 40ft three-pointer by Steph Curry. It’s why Twitter chose to have the NBA featured in one of its only commercials in 2015. And it has certainly contributed to Adam Silver being the most popular sports commissioner in America today.
Despite being wrongheaded, you can understand the NFL’s policy of issuing copyright takedowns, because social media isn’t the main reason for its popularity. However, it is beyond baffling that the Bundesliga and La Liga, desperate to match the global appeal of the Premier League (who, like the NFL, are unnecessarily strict about their footage but whose “most popular league in the world” crown was already established before social media), ruin their chances of international growth with this irrational approach. It is also perplexing when MLB – faced with an aging audience – is firmly against fans sharing standout moments of their games online. And it is crazy when the largely obscure USATF punishes accounts to further ensure casual sports fans become more apathetic to track and field. Thankfully for their sake, both the NHL and MLS have adopted the NBA’s refreshing philosophy.
Instead of issuing cease-and-desist notices, sports organizations, along with Twitter and its counterparts, muststop placing people in social media penitentiary. The policy solves nothing and only creates more pain for everyone, from these greedy companies to us the fans. And it will ensure more legal headaches for a problem that will never go away – social media and sports corporations won’t ever have a jail big enough for the internet.
