Twitter suspends sports blog accounts over NFL GIFs, Vines

Twitter suspended accounts belonging to Gawker Media's sport site Deadspin and Vox Media's SB Nation, Monday night after the NFL filed complaints related to their posting of GIFs and Vine videos of copyrighted highlights.

The complaint allegedthatsome Tweets, whichincludedGIFs and Vines,were in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, reports CNN.

Other professional sports franchisesare reportedtohave filed along with the NFL,includingthe Big 12 and Southeastern collegiate sports conferences as well as theUltimate Fighting Championship, reports NBC.

The NFL told reporters itrequested Twitter disable tweets featuringcopyrighted material, thoughnot the accounts themselves.

The @Deadspin account was suspended for about an hour yesterday. The @SBNationGIF account remains suspended as of Tuesday afternoon.

BothDeadspinand SB Nation regularly postGIFsand Vines of sports highlights.

Gawker's social media strategist tweeted how many requests had been made before its account was disabled.

During the shutdown, Deadspin requested readers visit its Facebook page, while ESPN host Keith Olbermann temporarily tweeted on behalf of Deadspin.

Use of files such as GIFs and Vines arecommonplace by bothdigital media organizations and other social media users, though they areoften generated usingcopyrightedmaterial.

Despite the grey area, the NFL's sabre-rattlingprobably isn't going to go over well onthe internet.