Athletes Given Green Light to Tweet, Engage Social Media During 2012 Olympic Games

Next year’s presentation of the 2012 Olympic Games in London will be unlike any other in Olympic history. This time, the athletes will be tweeting.

Competitors and participants in next year’s games are, indeed, allowed to “take part in social media and to post, blog and tweet their experiences,” the Olympic Committee ruled in a document released Monday.

No tweets or related social media posts from athletes, however, can be released for commercial purposes.

Similar to the rules governing the 2008 games in Beijing, no audio or video recordings will be allowed during the games, but uploading pics to social media sites will be permitted, so long as they are not sold or provided anywhere for profit.

The Olympic Committee also determined that spectators and competitions alike can not use social media to play pretend reporter.

Bloggers and tweeters must, however, restrict themselves to “first-person, diary-type formats”, must not report on events in the manner of journalists and must ensure their posts do not contain “vulgar or obscene words or images”.

According to a report this morning from Reuters, anybody considered to be in breach of the above guidelines “could have their Olympic accreditation removed, which would effectively bar them from the Games.”