Editorial Summary

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced new blogging regulations for 2008 Beijing Olympic athletes and officials, reports ChinaByte. The regulations prohibit the placement of advertising on Olympic blogs and limit content to personal Olympic experiences, as opposed to event news. Bloggers have also been prohibited from forming commercial agreements on exclusive content and from reposting audio, video or "sensitive" content on other sites. Blogs by Olympic athletes and officials cannot be opened on sites including the word "Olympics" in their URL and must offer links to the official website of the Beijing Games (www.beijing2008.cn). Bloggers breaking the IOC rules will be banished from the 2008 Games, according to the report. Sohu is the official Internet sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games, but athlete blogs are common to leading portals. The IOC ban on Olympic athlete and official blogs was lifted on December 11, 2007.