Wow. Twitter has played a center stage role at the London 2012 Olympics. Just consider these topics:
– Hope Solo used Twitter to attack Brandi Chastain during Olympics.
– Switzerland’s Michel Morganella has been expelled from the Olympics for posting a racist message on Twitter.
– Greek Jumper Paraskevi Papahristou Expelled From Olympic Team for Racist Tweet
– Twitter lifts suspension for vocal critic of NBC’s Olympics coverage.
All of those topics, and others, have demonstrated that Twitter and social media, as much as (if not more than) television, have come to play an important role on the World stage.
In the case of Olympic Women’s Soccer Star Hope Solo, she used Twitter to attack NBC Olympics and Women’s Soccer Legend Brandi Chastain for her critical comments about Solo’s teammate Rachel Buehler. Arguably, the attack worked because Chastain’s commentary was more balanced, and the Twitterverse took note of it.
Social Media can reveal to the World who you really are, so if you have ideas that can be considered racist, you will be outed on Twitter – and banned from the Olympics. That happened to both Paraskevi Papahristou and Michel Morganella.
But in fairness to Paraskevi Papahristou, her Twitter tweet about West Nile bugs biting Africans – to me – wasn’t racist. It just didn’t strike me as racist so much as regionalist – all Africans aren’t Black. Still it was stupid – not something I would have approved of.
By contrast what Michel Morganella tweeted was racist. He said “Je les tous Defonce Coréens, allez vous tous Bruler, bande de trisos! which means “I want to beat up all South Koreans, all of you burn, bunch of retards!” – and Michel did this after South Korea beat him and his Swiss Olympics team on Monday.
And we have Guy Adams and NBC – that Twitter banned him to protect NBC was horrible. Now, his Twitter account @guyadams is back, and he’s went from 4,500 followers when he was kicked off to over 18,000 as of this blogging.
The lesson: think before you Twitter tweet. Not doing so can and will cost you.