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Have you ever heard of censorship?

According to Dictionary.com, censor means, “An official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military or othergrounds.”

And now the “etc.” has extended to Twitter.

A critic of NBC and it’s coverage of the Olympics has had his Twitter account suspended…with no update on when it might be reinstated.

The Back Story

Like many of you, Guy Adams, a writer for The Independent in Great Britain, but resident of Los Angeles, took to Twitter to criticize NBC for its tape delay of the opening ceremonies, subpar reporting, and silly policy that won’t allow us to see the games in real-time, though (by the time we see the coverage) we already know what happens.

He was relentless in his tweets, but didn’t say anything (in my opinion) I haven’t seen from my friends all over Facebook and Twitter.

Am I alone in wondering why NBC Olympics think its [sic] acceptable to pretend this road race is being broadcast live?

Matt Lauer: ‘Madagascar, a location indelibly associated with a couple of recent animated movies.

Adams encouraged Lauer “to shut up” and called out Gary Zenkel, the president of NBC Olympics, as the “moronic exec behind the time delay.” And he said Zenkel should be fired.

During one of his tweets about Zenkel, he tweeted the NBC executive’s email address and encouraged his followers to send him a note.

Twitter Account Suspended

This tweet was what created the account suspension.

Adams said he filed a story with The Independent and, when he went to Twitter, discovered his account was gone.

When working with Twitter support, he was told:

But Adams insists Zenkel’s email address is easily found on Google so he didn’t, in fact, violate the Twitter terms of service.

I did a quick search and found Zenkel’s email address on Reuters, LinkedIn, and on the NBC site.

Censorship or “Rules”?

The suspension generated speculation that NBC has been involved in the decision from Twitter because they are partners during the Olympic Games.

NBC released a statement saying:

We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives. According to Twitter, this is a violation of their privacy policy. Twitter alone levies discipline.

Whether or not the relationship (and complaint from) with NBC had anything to do with the suspension, this feels very much like censorship to me.

While there isn’t an official reading through tweets (as according to the formal definition), the objectionable parts of Adams’s Twitter account have been suspended.

If Adams had tweeted Zenkel’s home address and phone number, I can understand the suspension. But an email address that is easily found with a Google search?

What do you think? Deserved suspension or censorship?

Three new Apple commercials aired during television coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games in London’s opening ceremonies on Friday night, each of which starred the same Apple Genius character in what could be the kickoff to a new ad campaign.

Later this week, a huge portion of the world’s population will be tuning in to watch the Olympics on TV, on the internet, and on their mobile devices. Riding high on this media wave is Twitter, the official digital communication partner for NBC’s coverage.

In the past, we’ve seen Twitter streams integrated into sites for events such as The Super Bowl and we’ve seen Twitter rise to the top as the source of information during a natural disaster. This time, though, Twitter isn’t just reporting the news, they’re actually becoming a part of the experience.

The Twitter hub at NBCOlympics.com is like nothing we’ve seen before. Here’s a partial screenshot. The full site is so big and so deep, I’d need at least ten shots to cover it all.

At the top, we have the impact meter that shows how many related Tweets are already out there and the Average Tweets Per Minute. Already sitting at 254, this number should rise rapidly once the opening ceremonies begin.

Now look a the center portion of the page. Looks more like Pinterest than Twitter, doesn’t it? In order to draw people in quickly, Twitter has wisely chosen to use large graphics to designate which sports are currently trending. Click though and you’ll find a more typical Twitter stream of related Tweets along with links to the most popular athletes. Click there and you get a profile with a link to that athlete’s personal Twitter account.

In addition to collating data, Twitter is creating data with Hashtag Polls and MadLibs where you fill in the missing word then Tweet. For example: I can’t wait to watch (fill in the sport) on the Olympics!

Twitter’s Chief Executive Dick Costolo sat down with the Wall Street Journal this week to talk about where the company is headed. He said that this kind of event-based news aggregation is something they’re aggressively perusing. How does this help the average marketer? Because Costolo says they’re going to take what they’ve learned and offer it to smaller venues such as conferences. Extend that to local sporting events and festivals, any event that would benefit from a steady stream of real-time information.

Now, here’s the quote that’s really important,

Mr. Costolo said he tells employees, “We need to narrow the gap between awareness of Twitter and engagement of Twitter.”

It’s not enough to have people follow you on Twitter, they have to engage with you on Twitter in order to successfully market your brand. Twitter knows it and they’re pushing everything in that direction.

A recent survey showed that 87% of people who watch the Olympics plan to talk about it on social media. With Twitter appearing so prominently in the coverage, it’s likely that new people will join the site and people who have been quiet will start to post. And for, what could be the first time, people will see Twitter as a participatory project, not just a place to read the latest news. That’s good news for every marketer who Tweets.

Twitter is going to get a huge boost over the next two weeks. But what happens when the Olympics end and everyone goes home? Undoubtedly, Twitter’s momentum will drop off, but how far? I’m betting they’ll hold on to some of their new found fame and they’ll come out of this stronger than ever.

Apple will be announcing the results of its fiscal third quarter in a conference call scheduled for Tuesday July 24. AppleInsider will provide live coverage.

At today’s not so secretive press conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will take the wraps off of the new Office. For some background check Sarah’s rundown. The press conference will start at 12PM PT, so come back then for live coverage of the event.

Here is our monthly Google webmaster report, where we recap the past month of SEO and webmaster related topics specific to Google and the forum coverage.

The WebmasterWorld thread is pretty dead – there is not much new going on this month…

AppleInsider will be providing live coverage of Apple’s keynote presentation from the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, starting at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. Click here to be taken to the live feed.

AppleInsider will be providing live coverage of Apple’s keynote presentation from the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, starting at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.

Below is live coverage of the Keynote with Bing’s Derrick Connell panel from the SMX Advanced conference.

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time…

Below is live coverage of the Breaking The Speed Limit: Faster Sites Win…