By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | October 12, 2015 |
By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | October 12, 2015 |
We all know the internet can be a dangerous place. Just turning on your computer or picking up your phone in the morning is a risk. You never know what evils may be lurking, just waiting to tear you down and cause you harm. Luckily, Twitter is looking out for you and is ready and quick to silence the biggest villains the internet holds: the GIF makers.
Monday evening saw the (probably) temporary suspension of the Twitter accounts for both Gawker Media’s Deadspin and Vox Media’s SB Nation. Both sites report on various sports things and both sites— because they’re on the internet, duh— use GIFs and Vines to do so. Apparently, though, the NFL is not a huge fan of that practice, and flagged the sites’ Twitter accounts for copyright infringement.
RE: @Deadspin: per the notice from Twitter, it looks like it's the NFL.
— Lacey Donohue (@laceydonohue) October 12, 2015
The rumors are true: Someone tipped off Twitter about our plans to tweet a photo of Roger Goodell's tiny, dismal penis at 6 p.m. Eastern
— Samer (@Samer) October 12, 2015
Just got a statement from the NFL re @deadspin twitter suspension: pic.twitter.com/buB6tb3DSH
— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) October 13, 2015
Both accounts were suspended, and while Deadspin was back up after a few hours (during which time Keith Olbermann of all people gave them the use of his account), as of writing this, SB Nation is still suspended.
Two important announcements: @Deadspin is back and fuck the Patriots.
— Lacey Donohue (@laceydonohue) October 12, 2015
Don’t worry, though, Deadspin has found some creative workarounds.
We can't post gifs so I'm making them for you! Here's the Cubs home run! https://t.co/QpR4vncX8b
— Drew Magary (@drewmagary) October 12, 2015
Cubs win! We go now to LEGALLY LICENSED VIDEO of Cards fans reaction! https://t.co/Z1Pgs1pi1Q
— Drew Magary (@drewmagary) October 13, 2015
So don’t worry, multi-billion dollar corporations, Twitter has your back. They want you and your intellectual property to feel protected. Women, people of color, LGBT folks, and everyone else who faces daily harassment online, I’m sure you’re next. I mean sure, Twitter notoriously “sucks” at dealing with that kind of abuse, but they have to be getting better, right? They can’t be THIS good at quickly shutting down accounts over a football GIF and NOT be trying to get better at responding to the hundreds and hundreds of abuse reports Twitter receives each year. Right?