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iePlexus Social Media News Brief: February 12, 2010

MySpace’s CEO stepped down this week, while many Olympians are wondering if they can use social media during the games. Find out the details in today’s Social Media News Brief…

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called Twitter and other social networks a quote “tool of terror” and has started asking its government to look at ways to regulate the internet.  Chavez felt threatened after the hashtag #freevenezuela became popular as thousands protested threats to journalism and freedoms of expression last week.  The President responded by asking the National Assembly to start prepping for legislation which would control the web saying they he’d be “eliminating terrorist threats posed by social networks.”  Many suspect this could be a long battle between the government and it’s people and  could start backlashes world wide. 

MySpace CEO Owen Van Netta was asked to step down on Wednesday, and was replaced by newly-promoted co-presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn.  Van Netta who is also a former executive at Facebook said in a brief statement that MySpace has been “an incredibly unique place to work.”  He took on the position only 9 months ago and has since been trying to move MySpace’s aim towards music and entertainment rather than a social network, but the transition has been so slow, which didn’t impress News Corp’s President Rupert Murdoch, who owns the one time leader in social media.  No word on what MySpace or Van Netta’s next move will be.

Tonight will mark the start of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and after much confusion, many of the athletes competing in this years Olympics plan on blogging and using social media to share their experience with the world.  International Olympic Committee rules confused many athletes including American Lindsey Vonn, which under the guidelines, athletes can not blog of any kind during their actual events. Otherwise their free to do so. Nearly 100 of the Olympians have active Twitter accounts and plan on not only microblogging about their experience but share photos and videos as well.  If you’d like to follow the Olympians on twitter, we made it easy for you to do so.  Just go to our Twitter page at twitter.com/iePlexus and click the Olympians List.