The NFL Will Reportedly Step Back its Intense Team Social Media Rules

The NFL's new social media rules, imposed in October, were widely criticized.

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After the NFL implemented some unusually strict social media rules earlier this season, the league is retreating. The NFL was widely criticized for putting harsh restrictions in place for team accounts and limiting the media they could share with fans.

The league is now modifying its policies to make them more lax, however, according to Yahoo Finance.

The retreat from the original rule is, as Yahoo puts it, “a push and pull between the league and teams.” The NFL wants to be the primary controller of content so viewers are fans of the NFL, not specific teams. Of course, the sports world does not work that way. This change seems to be a step toward compromise.

The new changes could be implemented as soon as this weekend, according to Yahoo. This would add flexibility for team social media accounts during this Sunday’s pivotal games as teams jockey for playoff position. Social media managers of the sports world, rejoice!

There is reportedly also a “test agreement” in place between the NFL and Giphy to make Giphy the “source of high quality and authentic NFL GIFs of ancillary game and historical/iconic content,” according to Yahoo.

There are a lot of new layers to this odd back-and-forth—teams can now post five “live” Snapchats during a game, for example. You can see an extensive breakdown at TechCrunch.

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