The Biggest Social Media Mess-Ups of the 2012 Olympics

London 2012 has recently been referred to as the “first social media Olympics” due to the fact that social media is 100 times bigger than it was in 2008 and everybody and their dog is posting, liking, Tweeting, and/or blogging about its every moment.

This should be a good thing, and for the most part it has been. Key words there, “for the most part”. You see, a handful of people have managed to do some major damage (mostly to themselves) and spark a lot of controversy via social media. As we all know, controversy spreads like wildfire on social media and once a Tweet is out there… it’s out there.

Here is our list of some of the biggest screw-ups so far in London 2012:

• Independent journalist Guy Adams tweeted his outrage about NBC coverage of the Olympics and found his Twitter account suspended. In the Tweet he included an NBC executive’s email address. (Update: Twitter later reactivated his account and apologized.)

• A 17-year-old arrested after malicious tweets were sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley has been given an official warning by Dorset Police. His Tweets were ridiculously awful, including one that accused Daley of letting down his father, who died in 2011 from brain cancer.

• Athlete Paraskevi Papachristou has been expelled from Greece’s Olympic team for posting an offensive comment about African immigrants on Twitter.

What were these people thinking???

That’s all for now. Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be LOTS more by the time London 2012 is over.

Taylor Hinkle

An award-winning photographer and web media specialist, Taylor has lead multiple social media campaigns for some of One Social Media’s most notable clients.

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