The International Olympic Committee or its representatives successfully lobbied Twitter to remove a viral clip showing a Uyghur athlete lighting the Olympic flame with commentary from NBC’s Savannah Guthrie amid U.S. allegations of Uyghur genocide, the Big Tech company said.
The video was disabled by Twitter by Saturday morning, and it now says that “this media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
“Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,” a spokesperson for Twitter told the Washington Examiner.
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The IOC also indicated that it was behind the video’s removal.
“As the clip contained audiovisual content from the Olympic Games, it contravened the exclusive rights that the IOC has granted to Rights Holding Broadcasters, and therefore was subject to an automated takedown procedure,” an IOC spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “The video images from the Opening Ceremony can be found on the platforms of the Rights Holding Broadcasters.”
The committee added that it “protects this exclusivity, in order to be able to provide sport and athletes around the world the equivalent of $3.4 million every day.”
The IOC’s website makes it clear that “the IOC is the owner of the global broadcast rights for the Olympic Games — including broadcasts on television, radio, mobile and internet platforms — and is responsible for allocating Olympic broadcast rights.”
The tweet’s video had been disabled due to a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice from a “rights holder” for the video, the Twitter spokesperson said. Twitter’s copyright policy says the company “responds to copyright complaints submitted under” the DMCA.
The copyright notice, which is posted on the Lumen Database, shows the DMCA takedown request was sent Saturday. It appears a request was also made by the IOC or its authorized representatives to take down a few other clips too, including one of Chinese athletes and another of one from the Philippines.
Jackson Richman, a writer at Mediaite, shared the since-removed segment of NBC’s coverage of the opening ceremony on Twitter on Friday morning.
“This moment is quite provocative,” Guthrie said during the Friday broadcast on NBC. “It’s a statement from the Chinese President Xi Jinping to choose an athlete from the Uyghur minority. It is an in-your-face response to those Western nations, including the U.S., who have called this Chinese treatment of that group genocide and diplomatically boycotted these games. There will be much discussion about this.”
Andy Browne, the editorial director of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, reacted on air during the NBC coverage, saying, “Never let an insult go unanswered. This was a riposte to President Joe Biden for skipping these Olympics and a message to the West: China won’t be lectured to on human rights or on any other issue.”
Richman’s tweet had received more than 200 retweets and more than 500 quote tweets, made its way into multiple news stories, and was shared by Republican senators and congressmen and by prominent conservative commentators.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott shared the tweet and said, “Disgusting. NBC Olympics is reading General Secretary Xi’s talking points live on air from the safety of its HQ in the United States.” GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler asked, “Why is the liberal mainstream media peddling CCP propaganda?” And Republican Rep. Mike Rogers said, “NBC asks that you ignore the genocide being committed by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The CCP selected two Chinese athletes to use the Olympic flame to light the Olympic cauldron during the Friday morning ceremony, with one of the athletes, Dinigeer Yilamujiang, being an ethnically Uyghur skier from Xinjiang. It was widely seen as a propaganda stunt by the CCP.
The 2022 Games have been dubbed the “Genocide Olympics” by critics who believe the competition should not be held in a country responsible for a host of human rights abuses, including mistreatment of the Uyghur minority. The IOC has avoided comment.
IOC President Thomas Bach vowed to stay “politically neutral” on China’s human rights abuses during a Thursday press conference, saying that speaking up for the Uyghurs could potentially “lead to the end” of the Olympic Games.
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The United States believes the Chinese Communist Party is conducting a genocide against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang in western China, though China denies it. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration that “we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state,” and the Biden administration agrees the genocide is “ongoing.”
NBC did not respond to a request for comment.
