GigaOM » guy adams

Twitter’s relationship with the media: It’s complicated

Mathew Ingram — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:41:48 +0000

Although it has only been a mainstream social network for a few short years, Twitter has formed a surprisingly tight and symbiotic relationship with the media, both because it is a kind of real-time newswire for information about events like the Arab Spring and the upcoming U.S. election, and also because it gives journalists an easy way to extend their personal brands into the social web. The company’s moves to lock down its network and control more of the content have raised some hackles in the journalism community, however, even as Twitter expands on its partnerships with select media entities such as NBC and MTV — and those stress points are only going to increase as the company’s ambitions and desire for revenue continue to grow.

A recent blog post from the Knight Center for Journalism at the University of Texas does a pretty good job of summarizing why some journalists and media executives might be uneasy about their relationship with Twitter and how they have come to rely on the network. Among other things, the post mentions the restrictions that the company recently announced on its API, which primarily affect third-party developers and apps — but could also wind up penalizing newspapers and other media outlets that have built their own features or services around Twitter using the same API. As the Knight Center post describes it:

“Recent changes to Twitter’s application programming interface (API) rattled some critics concerned about how journalists will use the popular social media platform to cover news in the future [and] beyond the recent API announcement, Twitter has seen a progression of censorship as the company matures that may threaten its credibility as a news source.”

Will media be treated the same as third-party apps?

One of the things that Twitter’s new API restrictions specifically prohibit (without special permission from the company) is mixing tweets from its network with content from other social networks or sources. But as University of British Columbia journalism professor and former BBC staffer Alfred Hermida notes in a recent post about the changes, these rules could also hit newspapers and other outlets that either generate their own curated feeds of content from Twitter and other sources, as the New York Times has done for the Republican National Convention and other events, or use tools such as ScribbleLive and Storify to do so.

So far, Twitter has said that Storify is safe from any repercussions due to the changes — despite the fact that the service (which was founded by former foreign correspondent Burt Herman) appears to be offering features that are frowned on by Twitter, according to the company’s somewhat confusing chart of good vs. bad apps. But given the way that the network has changed its modus operandi recently, by closing off external services such as Tumblr and Instagram and removing referrer links, it’s difficult to know how long that stay of execution might last for something like Storify. If a newspaper or media outlet has made that a key part of their journalistic process, they could be in for a rude awakening.

In a sense, media companies are suffering the same kind of angst that many developers and startups are feeling as Twitter evolves from being an open real-time information utility into a media entity driven by the need for advertising revenue to justify its market valuation. Just as those third-party services have built businesses on top of Twitter’s API because it was free, newspapers and other media outlets have come to rely on the network for the same reason — and could wind up regretting it in much the same way.

Twitter seems happy to have relationships with certain specific media entities, but for the most part they are television networks like NBC — which the company worked closely with during the recent Summer Olympics — and MTV, which is going to be making use of Twitter in a number of ways during its big Video Music Awards event later this month. Although many users seemed irritated by NBC’s delaying tactics during the Olympics, the head of Twitter’s media team, Chloe Sladden, told the New York Times that the network viewed the partnership as a huge success because it acted as “an amazing daytime teaser trailer driving people into prime time.”

Twitter wants to partner with some, compete with others

If you are a prominent media player such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, you can also get access to the “expanded tweets” or “Twitter cards” feature that the information network recently launched, which is the basis for much of its planned expansion. That allows more of your content to be shown inside a frame on the company’s website or inside its mobile apps — but as we’ve explained, this seems to be almost as much of a competitive move by Twitter as it does a helpful one for media companies, since Twitter is the one who gets the benefit of that content.

Meanwhile, as the Knight Center post noted, some media outlets are concerned about where Twitter’s desire to partner with TV networks and brands like NBC and MTV might take it, since the company was criticized fairly heavily for suspending the account of a British journalist who took potshots at its corporate partner during the Olympics. A Twitter spokesman said this was a misunderstanding related to the journalist’s posting of an NBC executive’s email address, but for many the incident was a critical breach of trust — and a sign that Twitter can and will control or even censor the content on its network as it sees fit.

And so, media outlets are left with a dilemma: Twitter is hugely useful in a whole variety of ways, and it has become a crucial part of much political and social news coverage. But at the same time, relying on a proprietary and increasingly competitive service for a key part of your business can be unwise, whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, and sooner or later media companies are going to have to confront that reality and figure out how to deal with it.

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr users Mathias and Abysim

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Twitter comes clean, apologizes for NBC-gate

Jeff John Roberts — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:08:05 +0000

Twitter has finally addressed its role in a growing scandal over its decision to zap the account of a U.K. journalist who had been critical of NBC’s Olympics coverage.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Twitter’s general counsel Alex McGillivray issued a blog post describing how Twitter handles situation in which users post the personal information of other people.

Most significantly, McGillivray’s post also apologized for Twitter’s decision to tell NBC to file a complaint about the journalist, Guy Adams of The Independent:

That said, we want to apologize for the part of this story that we did mess up. The team working closely with NBC around our Olympics partnership did proactively identify a Tweet that was in violation of the Twitter Rules and encouraged them to file a support ticket with our Trust and Safety team to report the violation, as has now been reported publicly. [..]

As I stated earlier, we do not proactively report or remove content on behalf of other users no matter who they are. This behavior is not acceptable and undermines the trust our users have in us. We should not and cannot be in the business of proactively monitoring and flagging content, no matter who the user is — whether a business partner, celebrity or friend.

This appears to be the end of part one of a controversy in which Twitter, which has been a champion of free speech and transparency, appeared to break its own principles in order to champion a corporate interest.

For more background, see: Twitter restores reporter’s account, tweet with NBC e-mail remains

And to learn about its significance for the media and for Twitter, see my colleague Mathew Ingram’s insightful take: Twitter at a Cross Roadroads: Economic Value vs. Information Value

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Twitter restores reporter’s account, tweet with NBC e-mail remains

Jeff John Roberts — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 18:20:20 +0000

Two days after his account was suspended, the U.K. reporter who touched off a media kerfuffle about corporate control of speech is back on Twitter. The Independent’s Guy Adams, who made his name bashing NBC’s Olympic coverage, reappeared on the service midday Tuesday. Here’s a look at his return plus other samples of British snark:

In follow-up posts, Adams writes that Twitter explained to him that the original complainant (NBC) had retracted its complaint so his account was restored.

Significantly, though, the tweet that landed Adams in the penalty box in the first place is still there. In the tweet, Adams posted the email address of an NBC executive and suggested readers complain to him. (See details here).

Twitter had emailed Adams that the tweet violated its rules that forbid posting private information such as telephone numbers or private emails. That decision has touched off a debate about whether or not the executive’s corporate email was really private and whether Twitter’s sanction was too strong, as well as what kind of company Twitter wants to be as it grows up.

Here’s the tweet that caused all the trouble in the first place:

The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven’t started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com

— Guy Adams (@guyadams) July 27, 2012

Update: An NBC spokesperson has issued a statement (via the Wall Street Journal) :

“Our interest was in protecting our executive, not suspending the user from Twitter. We didn’t initially understand the repercussions of our complaint, but now that we do, we have rescinded it.”

Update 2: Late Tuesday afternoon, Twitter issued a statement explaining the situation and apologizing for telling NBC to make a complaint (details here).

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Twitter snuffs an Olympics critic: smart play or censorship?

Jeff John Roberts — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:15:45 +0000

The media is fuming over Twitter’s decision to suspend the account of a British journalist who used the micro-blogging site to toss barbs at NBC’s decision to time-delay its Olympic coverage over the weekend. The episode raises questions about free speech and corporate control of social media platforms. (Updated, Tuesday 9:30am)

For anyone who missed it, the brouhaha began this morning when sports site Deadspin reported that Twitter had cut off Guy Adams, an LA-based reporter for The Independent. Adams has been a standard bearer for the new #nbcfail hashtag and used his account to rattle off a series of British-inflected tirades about NBC’s time delay: “‘Sneak peak’ my arse”; ”tosspot”; “Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldn’t he?” and so on.

Adams apparently crossed a line when he published the email address of NBC executive Gary Zenkel and told followers to “Tell him what u think.” NBC complained to Twitter and shortly after the micro-blog site suspended Adams’ account.

Critics have since called attention to the fact that Twitter has partnered with NBC’s parent company to promote the games, and suggested that the companies decided to shut down Adams’ account as an act of reprisal.

In an email message to Adams, Twitter explained the account had been suspended because he had violated terms of service that forbid disclosing private information like a person’s telephone number or private email address. Deadspin and others have noted that gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com is a corporate address.

So who is right? Did Adams overstep a boundary or are Twitter and NBC wrongfully censoring a journalist? Well, from a legal point of view, Twitter is in the clear. The company’s terms of service make it plain that it can boot users off the site anytime and for any reason.

Twitter’s moral position is a lot more shaky. Its reason for tossing Adams is flimsy (the email he printed was not private) and, worse, they simply caused him to disappear altogether. If you search @guyadams on Twitter, the company will suggest users with similar handles but the original Guy Adams has simply vanished in the same way that disgraced communists would vanish from Kremlin photographs.

This policy of “disappearing” people without a trace is unhealthy and something Twitter should reconsider. The site has bravely opposed police gag orders and published a groundbreaking transparency report to highlight government censorship.

In the future, Twitter should show who it is barring from the site and explain why. In the meantime, it should give Guy Adams his account back.

Update: The Telegraph reported Tuesday that NBC claims that it was Twitter who informed their social media department about Adams’ tweets and informed them how to file a complaint. Meanwhile, respected social media journalist Danny Sullivan has pointed out that Gary Zenkel’s email address was not widely available. Other are questioning the appropriateness of using Twitter to initiate ‘email bombing.’ As of Tuesday morning, Twitter has remained silent in the face of what appears to be its biggest PR crisis to date.

(Image by Rui Vale de Sousa via Shutterstock)

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.