Twitter has cracked down on the unauthorized use of the Olympic logo after London 2012 organizers complained about an activist group’s parody that used the trademark, the Guardian reported.
Twitter temporarily suspended the group’s account, arguing that its use of the logo as a Twitter picture was against its rules, because the group could be mistaken for an Olympic sponsor.
The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog), which oversees the Summer Games in the British capital, said the group, Space Hijackers had used a redesigned Olympics logo in red and black when it set itself up as the “official protesters of the London 2012 Olympic Games.”
Twitter wrote to the group that Locog had told it that the Space Hijackers account “is using a trademark in a way that could be confusing or misleading with regard to a brand affiliation,” the Guardian said. It added: “Your account has been temporarily suspended due to violation of our trademark policy.”
Twitter unlocked the group’s account late on Wednesday and gave it 48 hours to comply with Twitter’s rules or face permanent suspension, the Guardian later added.
“Our latest project is to do with the Olympics and obviously they have got an official chocolate bar and an official TV and the rest of it and we thought what they were missing was an official set of protesters,” a spokesman for Space Hijackers told the Guardian.
A Locog spokesperson said that the organization was not taking issue with Space Hijackers’ politics, arguing that “this is purely about our logo.”
Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
