Did Twitter suspend journalist Guy Adams' account for blasting NBC?
(CBS News) Guy Adams, the Los Angeles bureau chief of Britain's The Independent newspaper, may not have anything nice to say about NBC's coverage of the London Olympic Games, but now he can't say anything at all - on Twitter, at least.
Adams' Twitter account was suspended over the weekend. And he's raised suspicions that it was due to his relentless criticism of NBC's Olympics coverage (Twitter and NBC are in a partnership for the London Olympic Games).
According an email correspondence with Twitter, which Adams shared with CBS News, the company told Adams that his account was suspended for "posting an individual's private information such as private email address, physical address, telephone number, or financial documents."
Taking to Twitter as the games got under way Friday, Adams repeatedly expressed frustration with NBC for delaying its telecast of events, and called out the network's hosts for a lack of sophistication in their commentary. While his account is now suspended, you may read some of what he tweeted in this Independent article he wrote about the dust-up. At one point, Adams tweeted NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel's work email address.
"The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: [address removed]@nbcuni.com," @guyadams tweeted.
It should be noted that text quoted in the company's emailed response to Adams is not actually 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." Twitter has not returned CBSNews.com's request for comment.
The sports blog Deadspin noted that Zenkel's information is not technically private because it is a corporate email address. And it can be discovered by Googling how NBC structures its email addresses.
Digging through archived tweets points to another possible explanation as to why Adams' account was suspended. Out of frustration with the broadcast delay of Friday's opening ceremonies, Adams retweeted a link to a site offering an illegal stream of the event.
"Another good 'un MT @CPbike: luckily some of us found a live feed so we don't have to wait 7 hours for @NBColympics http://t.co/address removed"
According to Twitter's rules, users cannot advocate unlawful behavior:
Unlawful Use: You may not use our service for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities. International users agree to comply with all local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content.
Copyright: We will respond to clear and complete notices of alleged copyright infringement. Our copyright procedures are set forth in the Terms of Service.
Adams wasn't the only one to re-tweet the link, however. And those other accounts have not been suspended.
In March, director Spike Lee re-tweeted the incorrect home address of George Zimmerman, the man charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, to nearly 250,000 followers.
The tweet, originally sent by a Marcus D. Higgins, went viral before it was discovered that he was sharing the wrong address connected to a different ZImmerman. A Florida couple ended up temporarily moving into a hotel due to harassment they say they received after the bad tweet.
Neither Lee nor Higgins were suspended from Twitter. So why Adams? Why now?
In his story Monday, Adams included a statement that has been released by NBC Sports: "We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives"
"I'm of course happy to abide by Twitter's rules, now and forever," Adams wrote in an email to Twitter. "But I don't see how I broke them in this case."
