In an effort to try and tone down potentially controversial and troublesome tweets on Twitter or Facebook activity, America’s pro sports leagues are putting together some interesting policies for their players.
An article titled “North American pro sports leagues in a twitter over tweeting” on Reuters.com covers some of these new guidelines and proposals in the National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League.
It’s all about the access players and team staff should have to social media sites before, during and after games.
The FindLaw blog Tarnished Twenty also recently tackled the issues and legal ramifications – for players and fans. In “Sports and Social Media, Part 1: The Crackdown,” Brian Kumnick references the NFL’s efforts regarding social media and traditional league policy for the public that prohibit “broadcasts” of game descriptions or accounts. He writes: Given its broad wording, this one is really just waiting for one blogging or tweeting fan to cross some invisible line before the NFL brings the legal heat.
In Kumnick’s follow-up post, “Sports and Social Media Part 2: Why the New Policies Won’t Work,” he states three reasons that social media guidelines and policies in pro and college sports for athletes and fans “are a losing effort.”
One of which, is “Sports are as much a public as a private concern.” That is, by nature discussions by fans about sports teams are generally free and out in the open. Blogs, social networks and other online outlets facilitate that. Kumnick writes: Against that background, the traditional notion that teams and leagues can be the exclusive owners of games, images, and stories begins to look untenable. Sports leagues have never fully controlled the fan experience, and now that fans are charging right ahead to find a host of new ways to enhance that experience, there’s no reason to think that they can be stopped.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
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