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The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) must spend a majority of the four-year break between Olympics thinking up new, spectacularly petty demands to make of everyone when the next event rolls around. It's always been overbearing and thuggish, but it seems determined to top itself with each new iteration of its sports-related boondoggle.
In the run-up to this year's particularly dystopian Olympic games, being hosted in a city without clean water or a clean police force, the USOC has already demanded:
- That a company take down Olympic-related social media posts pertaining to the Olympic athlete the company is sponsoring
- That no non-official commercial entities are allowed to use certain hashtags in tweets
- That no "non-media" companies are allowed to refer to the Olympic games, outcomes of events, or even share/repost content posted by official Olympic media accounts
It's these last two that are being challenged -- not by a megacorporation unable to buy its way into the USOC's good graces, but a Minnesota-located franchise of the Zerorez carpet cleaning business.
A small business in Minnesota is suing over the US Olympic Committee's ban on tweeting about the Olympic games. The Committee announced last month that non-sponsors are banned from even using hashtags like #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA. Zerorez, a carpet cleaning business in Minnesota, will file suit in U.S. District Court on Thursday.
So why is this seemingly random floor cleaning business in Minnesota the one suing? They simply want to root for the home team.
"They're very engaged with social media," Aaron Hall, CEO of the JUX Law firm, told me over the phone. "They felt concerned about being censored on social media, especially at a time when we're going through a time of pain and negativity."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @05:42PM
You do realize that many of the "segments" on those morning shows are just paid advertisements, right? I remember the day when a friend of mine bought two rounds of drinks because they got a guaranteed spot on a morning show. That meant enough people wrote in and liked it that his company a huge break in price and a set interval and other perks. IIRC, listen for the magic words, "brought to you by" in the intro. For example, "and now home improvement tips, brought to you by Steve of DIYwithSteve." Oh and most of those segments turn out to plug "great" products? Guess we now where Steve is getting the money from to pay for the time.