(NEXSTAR) – It’s no wonder that many of the world’s best athletes — being young, fit, and incredibly popular — are all the rage on TikTok amid the 2024 Summer Games.
But despite going viral with posts containing critiques of the Olympic Village’s dining hall or even their attempts to test the structural integrity of their cardboard beds, the athletes in Paris are indeed beholden to a strict set of guidelines concerning what they can and can’t post to social media.
Most of the guidelines, though, are designed to appease the media outlets who partnered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to broadcast or promote the events.
“The Guidelines will enable athletes to tell their fans about their unique experiences of competing at the Olympic Games while protecting the rights of the [media rights-holders],” the IOC writes.
To that end, athletes at the Olympics in Paris are prohibited from livestreaming on social media, or posting videos over two minutes in length. They also can’t share any video filmed at a competition venue within one hour of the start of the event, according to the IOC’s official Social and Digital Media Guidelines for 2024.
Athletes also can’t post any pictures or videos that are commercial in nature, such as ads, paid-marketing posts, or anything that may promote a third party’s “products/services,” unless it’s an official sponsor of the Olympic Games (or the team’s approved sponsors, such as the sponsor of the National Olympic Committee).
Also off-limits are posts containing photographs or video of medical areas, doping control stations or the multi-faith center in the Olympic Village. The use of any AI-generated imagery, video or audio is prohibited, too.
Privacy and decency are also expected of participants at the Games, the IOC adds. These stipulations, outlined in a FAQ for participants, say the athletes’ posts cannot be “discriminatory or obscene,” and include only imagery of themselves unless they have obtained permission from another athlete or attendee who appears in their videos/pictures, among other restrictions.
All content must also be filmed by the athlete who shares the social media posts (with no professional equipment other than their “personal mobile phone”) and not by any third party, the FAQ indicates.
Any content that skirts the above rules (and any others mentioned in the guidelines for either athletes or any other “accredited individuals” in official venues) can be removed. Violators can be subject to additional penalties, the IOC says.
Still, the Olympians vying for gold in Paris are permitted to have at least some fun on social media, judging by their online activities since arriving for the 2024 Summer Games. The IOC is also quite lax about allowing participants to post videos about their outfits, their baguette-baking classes, the Olympic Village’s non-alcoholic “tiki bar,” or even their disappointment at the lack of other single Olympians who are ready to mingle via online dating apps.
“Alas, I guess we’re searching for other forms of entertainment,” one member of the U.S. Rowing team said after finding very few of her fellow athletes on Tinder.
