The Rockets' official Twitter account was back in action Thursday, three days after it was suspended because of issues with copyrighted music, and by Friday it had its full complement of followers back in the fold.
The NBA team had more than 2.8 million Twitter followers as of Monday morning when its account was suspended, but the follower count was down to 1.91 million Thursday when the feed was back live, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Mood when we get our Twitter back! pic.twitter.com/igqS1jQkvh
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) May 23, 2019
The Rockets' account, along with those of several college football programs, was suspended over previous video posts that used copyrighted music.
The Rockets’ response: “Our Twitter account has been temporarily suspended due to a few prior social media posts with copyrighted music. We are working to correct the issue now.”
This aggression will not stand, man. https://t.co/amrO5lCmUW
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 20, 2019
When an account is suspended, it can take up to 24 hours for the account's profile to reflect the correct number of followers, a Twitter spokesperson said via email. Twitter confirmed to Omnisport on Friday morning that all of the Rockets' 2.8 million followers were back.
For Texas-centric comparison, the Spurs have 3.42 million followers, and the Mavericks have 1.57 million followers. The Lakers have the most followers among NBA teams with 7.6 million.
The Twitter accounts for college football programs at Baylor, Iowa, Iowa State, Auburn and Rutgers also were suspended.
Twitter’s copyright policy reads, in part, “Twitter will respond to reports of alleged copyright infringement, such as allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted image as a profile or header photo, allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted video or image uploaded through our media hosting services, or Tweets containing links to allegedly infringing materials.”
Per the Chronicle: There were several of college football Twitter accounts temporarily suspended in 2018 for similar reasons. In most cases, however, those accounts were restored later in the day.
