The lead up to the Rio Olympics has been fraught with trouble, from dead body parts washing ashore, to toxic water sports venues, to dead mascots. But the IOC is desperately hoping that Friday’s Opening Ceremonies will usher in the typical two weeks of athletic magic.
But members of the media shouldn’t plan on catching any of that magic on their Twitter accounts.
According to International Olympic Committee regulations released to the masses on Thursday, journalists and other members of the media are prohibited from any “broadcasting” of the events on social media, and that includes GIFs, Periscopes and Vines.
Olympic Material must not be broadcast on interactive services such as “news active” or “sports active” or any other related Video on Demand services, which would allow the viewer to make a viewing choice within a channel and to thereby view Olympic Material at times and programs other than when broadcast as part of a News Program as set out in Clause 1 above. Additionally, the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.
Clearly, this is a protectionist measure; the IOC has its own officially licensed live broadcasts, and they believe that they can prevent people tuning into social media to get up-to-the-minute results from journalists on the ground, the way people do for every other news event.
But it’s almost as though the IOC doesn’t fully understand how social media works. It’s not likely that people who would tune into the Olympics are going to forgo live broadcast coverage for short, looping video clips on social media platforms. Its a different audience and a supplementary format—not a competing one.
Fortunately, these rules only apply if you’re at the Olympics on official media business. Spectators on the ground and normal people with televisions can still make the GIFs and escape the wrath of the IOC.
For now.
