SEC to Clarify the Social Media Guidelines

The Southeastern Conference is getting a beating over the Social Media guidelines for fans, which seemed to ban even the use of Twitter during sports events.

I just spoke with a media representative for the SEC, and believe me — they have heard every one of you.

They are working now on a clarification to the policy and hope to release it within the next 24-48 hours, but the gist of it is this:

1. Twitter will not be banned.
2. The issue isn’t text, but video.
3. The SEC needs to protect its broadcast partners (CBS and ESPN) and those with rights to online video.

This makes sense, and certainly is a more reasonable restriction.

What isn’t entirely clear is whether the approach will be one of preventative measures (disallowing phones, highly unlikely) or ex-post-facto actions like takedown notices to various sites that host the videos. We’ll see when the clarifications are released.

UPDATE: Follow @secsportsupdate on Twitter – I’m fairly certain they will share the link there first.