Journalist at The Independent has Twitter account suspended after complaining about NBC's coverage of London 2012 Olympics

[Commentary] On July 27, I was not watching the Olympic opening ceremony. Instead, I was quietly fuming at the fact that NBC, the US network which purchased rights to the entire Games, had come to the conclusion that it would be a good idea delay broadcast of this global news event until the evening prime-time, roughly nine hours after it had finished. This being the era of Twitter, I did not have to suffer in silence.

At around 2pm, I began posting a series of messages complaining about the company’s hugely-cynical policy. One of them suggested that frustrated viewers voice their complaints to Gary Zenkel, the President of NBC Olympics. “The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel,” read the Tweet. “Tell him what u think!” It then contained Zenkel’s work email address. A few dozen people “re-Tweeted” the update over the ensuing hours. Several of them used the “hashtag” #NBCFail, which, thanks to the broadcaster’s comically inept coverage of the London games, has since been a trending topic on the microblogging site. Later that afternoon, I was invited on the Los Angeles talk radio station KNX 1070 to discuss the absence of live coverage of the ceremony. If I remember correctly, I declared myself “utterly outraged” during that two-minute interview, saying with only a hint of understatement that NBC was: “treating the people of America with contempt.” On July 29, I wrote a short article for The Independent growing criticism of NBC’s Olympics coverage, which has resulted in network TV viewers being shown almost no high profile events live, while commentators made a series of basic factual errors – among them, calling Luxembourg "a small, central European country.” Shortly after filing that article, I attempted to check my Twitter account. When I logged on, I was presented with a message saying it had been “suspended.” If I had any questions, I was asked to click on a link and fill in an online form.

I heard back from Twitter. In what was apparently an automated email, I was told that: “Your twitter account has been suspended for posting an individual's private information such as private email address.” It then contained a copy of my Tweet regarding Zenkel.