Twitter undermines free speech

In a welcome about-face Tuesday morning, Twitter restored the account of journalist Guy Adams, who posted a series of critical comments about NBC's handling of the Olympics.

"Oh," Adams wrote in his first tweet since his account was suspended Sunday. "My Twitter account appears to have been un-suspended. Did I miss much while I was away?"

Adams followed up by saying that Twitter informed him via e-mail that NBC had retracted its original complaint.

While it's encouraging to hear NBC backed away - even if it required an enormous online backlash - it remains disturbing that Twitter revoked the account in the first place.

Let's be perfectly clear: Twitter suspended a user for committing an act of journalism.

The mind-boggling move undermines the San Francisco startup's credibility as a supposed advocate of open communications, and whittles away the goodwill of professional and citizen journalists who are the lifeblood of the service.

In a series of tweets in recent days, Adams colorfully assailed, among other things, NBC's ridiculous decision to force West Coast viewers to watch the Olympics on a time delay, presumably so the network could charge prime-time advertising rates.

It's been an infuriating experience for fans who can't duck the spoilers blasting at them from all quarters of the Internet. Adams, a correspondent for London's Independent newspaper, simply supplied them an appropriate outlet for those frustrations in the tweet that supposedly got his account deactivated.

"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"

Twitter told Adams that tweet violated their terms of service by posting private information, specifically NBC Olympics President Zenkel's e-mail address. But that flimsy explanation falls down under the lightest scrutiny.

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Twitter undermines free speech