International Olympic Committee Social Media Guidelines

The Olympic Games have started using social media platforms as a means of communicating with their audience, supporters and athletes. However, there are certain rules and guidelines that must be taken into account. Here is a short article on whether athletes should be allowed to use social media platforms during the Games.

Social media, blogging and the internet as a whole has grown amazingly over the past years. The 21^st century has seen the uproar of social media, being Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Each and every one of these platforms can be used for research purposes, journalistic purposes or just for mere fun. They are used by the general public, politicians, sport figures, entertainment icons. Fame brings followers and these followers await the latest news from their adored “players”.

As pointed out in the “IOC Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines”, (IOC_Social_Media_Blogging_and_Internet_Guidelines-English.pdf) the IOC encourages Participants to post comments on social media platforms and tweet during the Olympic Games, and it is entirely acceptable for any Participant to do a personal posting, blog or tweet. However there are a number of rules and guidelines that they must comply, they must always be dignified and in good taste, and should not be discriminatory, offensive, hateful, defamatory or otherwise illegal and shall not contain vulgar or obscene words or images, and finally must always conform to the Olympic spirit and main principles of Olympism: Friendship, excellence and respect.

The main problem is Freedom of Speech and how free one can be. The athletes, who are constantly in the public eye, are people we look up to, peers that have moral and ethical values for following youngsters, consequently they must be very careful how and what they post. The tone of a tweet is difficult to determine, sarcasm can be understood as disrespect therefore rules are essential.

Athletes must continue their professional behaviour on and off the field of play. Thus, allowing athletes to criticize other athletes and referees, give personal or political opinions on social media may be very harmful to a mega-event, seen by billions worldwide, that stands by respect upon every level.