We all know how hot Twitter is these days. I mean, it’s the ultimate lazy American social networking tool. No pictures, very little information, no groups; just 140 characters of whatever is going on in your head.
While the idea seems great in theory, giving even the most reserved person in the room a forum to speak, it has been skewed in reality. Celebrities and athletes attract the most attention, and have boatloads more followers than they follow. Unfortunately, Twitter has turned into the newest forum for muck sites like TMZ to show the world how stupid they are by blowing up tweets and turning them into feuds between athletes who don’t even know each other (Shaq and Becks had a fallout after this.)
In an effort to combat this madness, it is being reported that ESPN has taken a big brother type roll and is now putting some pretty heavy restraints on the “tweets” of its employees.
CNET.com reported that NBA analyst for ESPN Ric Bucher tweeted the following:
“the hammer just came down, tweeps: ESPN memo prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN; Kinda figured this was coming. Not sure what this means but.”
ESPN has gone full speed on the Twitter bandwagon and has an account for many of its shows. What ESPN underestimated was the amount of attention these twitter accounts, and the accounts of their more popular employees, would generate.
A big name anchor at ESPN like Stewart Scott could toss something on his Twitter having to do with sports and take potential audience members away from ESPN. It is unfortunate that ESPN is taking these steps because the whole point of Twitter is to give everyone a voice. This is a clear example of a company going against that mantra. The big corporation is shutting down the small individual because, well, it just doesn't benefit them.
Am I the only one angry here? This is a BIG problem that could very easily spread. Companies all bought into Twitter, and encouraged employees to start tweeting, but had no idea just how contagious a viral campaign could be. Twitter is up to the second news updates; something not even ESPN could rival in timeliness.
While the fact that ESPN is scared of Twitter is a story in itself, the real nut here is that companies should not be able to sanction personal Twitter accounts of big name employees. I think this is a trend that will continue, and bring about a bad turn of events for Twitter if other companies follow through on ESPN’s communist initiative.
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