Ian Rapoport — one of the most prominent NFL reporters within the media has been suspended by the NFL Network for two weeks after Rapoport promoted the Manscaped Lawn Mower, a male personal grooming tool on his social media channels without obtaining Network “permission”.
Here’s a statement released by Rapoport where he mentions the suspension lasting until October 22.
Rapoport is often times one of the first NFL reporters to break news on the League so it would seem like Rapoport’s absence due to something as mundane as this would almost be as much of a detriment to the Network as it is to Rapoport.
But it’s apparent the NFL Network is much more comfortable silencing one of their voices in the middle of a season for the sake of inhibiting more control over their employees with this precedent set. Nevertheless, we’re seeing more of this control being implemented by big companies over employees when it comes to social media as they’re essentially assuming jurisdiction over a worker’s online identity.
Recently, the WWE has set policy regarding their wrestlers using third party platforms and in some cases have taken ownership of them.
