Facebook had mistakenly blocked Olympic sprinter, and the fastest woman in the world who won the gold medal, Elaine Thomson-Herah from Instagram.
The sprinter from Jamaica had tweeted that she had been blocked after sharing videos of her 100 and 200-metre races because she "did not own the right to do so". A Facebook spokesperson later admitted that the removal of the content was wrongly applied.
The gold medalist defended her titles from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics in Tokyo, making her the winner of four Olympic gold medals from two consecutive Games. But Thomson-Herah was impeded from sharing her achievements with her 310,000 followers on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
Social media has become one of the main ways for audiences to follow the Games. Many athletes have shared behind the scenes videos on TikTok, including debugging 'anti-sex' myths. However, copyright legislation poses restrictions on the kinds of content that can be posted online about the Games.
Speaking of the copyrights, the IOC told Reuters:
"Rights Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) have the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympic Games. This includes distribution on social media, where athletes are invited to share the content provided by the RHBs on their accounts but cannot post competition content natively. Should that occur, the removal of such content from social media platforms happens automatically."
It is estimated that more than $4 billion in broadcasting rights will be given to the IOC, for or the period including the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics and the Tokyo Games. Much of the funds will be used to support sports and athletes that take part in the Games.
The IOC said:
"The income from the sales of the broadcasting rights is an important element in the financing of the Olympic movement and helps building the Olympic stage on which athletes can shine. The IOC redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of $3.4 million goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world."
[h/t: Reuters]
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