Olympics fans told not to tweet, text during events

GlobalPost

London Olympics fans were told by Games bosses to avoid non-urgent texting and tweeting because an overloaded network was affecting TV coverage.

Broadcasters complained that they were unable to determine the distance between cyclists during Saturday's road races because GPS and communications systems had failed, according to CNN.

Commentator Chris Boardman resorted to using his own watch to estimate timing in the race, said The Guardian.

 International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said it was a network issue, caused by hundreds of thousands of fans lining the streets of London to cheer their team on, sending messages, reported Reuters. He urged people to limit and spread out their use of Twitter and text messages.

More from GlobalPost: 2012 London Olympics coverage

"Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say 'don't, you can't do it', and we would certainly never prevent people," Adams told Reuters. "It's just, if it's not an urgent, urgent one, please kind of take it easy. We don't want people to stop engaging in social media but we are asking to see if people can send by other means."

CNN also said the IOC reported that the issue was resolved by the time the women's cycling road race started Sunday and did not affect the outcome of the race Saturday.

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