The Georgia Football Twitter account is back!
Our long statewide nightmare is over. @FootballUGA is back live on Twitter.
It’s Thursday afternoon, about 6 days after the initial suspension, and everything seems back to normal as we give a final update. The account is verified again, it has re-followed its full previous following, all of its more than 900,000 followers are back, and the videos have commenced.
The account even trolled itself a bit upon its return.
— Georgia Football (@FootballUGA) April 24, 2018
Let’s hope everyone learned a lesson.
UPDATE: Tuesday 4:15 p.m. ET: But there’s a catch.
Users are able to view the main account page, and all the tweets are present. But the account is not verified, is only following one account, and only has 79 followers.
It’s likely that all of those numbers will begin to repopulate in the next couple of hours if not even sooner.
The most recent tweet is from last Thursday, April 19.
UPDATE: Tuesday 12:30 p.m. ET: After being suspended Friday afternoon, the Georgia Football @FootballUGA account is now four days into Twitter purgatory.
No new information has surfaced since our update on Monday.
UPDATE Monday 3 p.m. ET: Going on about 72 hours of suspension, Reddit users have helped to uncover at least part of the reason why the Georgia Football Twitter account has not yet reactivated. @FootballUGA has been a repeat offender of using copyrighted music, according to Copyright Data tracking site Lumen, which likely explains the extended suspension.
UGA football's official account (@FootballUGA) remains down after receiving its 6th DMCA takedown notice in 16 months: https://t.co/2ZYgPp8SRN
It follows the same pattern of groups of tweets being taken down for unlicensed music.— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) April 22, 2018
At this link you can view the six instances for which Georgia has received takedown notices. (If the link takes you to an empty search page, type in footballuga and press Enter).
Here are the dates of the six alleged infringing tweets:
- April 19, 2018
- Feb. 7, 2018 (this was National Signing Day, consistent with the suspension mentioned in the original story below)
- Aug. 14, 2017
- July 27, 2017
- June 20, 2017
- Jan. 17, 2017
The tracking site lists that action has been taken on all of these occurrences. Given that none of the other suspensions have lasted more than a few hours, it seems like this latest strike resulted in a harsher penalty for the account.
Although it doesn’t make any infringement OK, it’s worth noting that the Georgia Football account is one of dozens listed for infringing on the respective material on each of the above dates.
Although the people behind the scenes are probably not laughing, Twitter users are still having fun with the suspension.
Free @footballUGA pic.twitter.com/uEQgR5wKEl
— Jacub Easun (@skinnyqb10_pls) April 21, 2018
this Georgia accounts been suspended so many times it’s gonna end up at Juco then transfer to Auburn
— ᴿʸᵃⁿ (@DJMullyD) April 22, 2018
DawgNation will continue to provide updates on the account’s status as they become available.
Original story below:
It’s a beautiful spring Saturday in Athens for Georgia’s annual G-Day spring game, and the only people in town who aren’t having a good time are probably the ones in charge of the Georgia Football Twitter account @FootballUGA.
The account was suspended for most of Friday and remains under suspension Saturday afternoon as the G-Day kickoff is in almost three hours.
This is what it currently looks like on Twitter when a user tries to access the account.
It is the second time already in 2018 that the @FootballUGA account has been suspended. During the early morning hours of National Signing Day in February, the account also was rendered inactive. In that case, it seemed like more of a pattern among Division I football programs, as the Bulldogs were one of many accounts to be suspended on the night before or day of Signing Day.
However, this time it appears as though the Georgia account is not part of a larger net of suspensions.
Twitter generally suspends accounts because of use of copyrighted music in videos they tweet.
Some Bulldogs fans are amused at the timing of the suspension while others are frustrated because they’re receiving messages that the account has blocked them.
Today is not the day for @FootballUGA to have its account suspended
— Blake Bilz (@BlakeBilz) April 21, 2018
@FootballUGA what’s wrong with you guys account?
— YRÑ Dashiñg ♉️ (@IamDashingKeith) April 21, 2018
@FootballUGA Please help #GoDawgs 🐶😐 pic.twitter.com/9Jg1pFmBfi
— Colin Beach🏈🏀 (@ColinBeach4) April 21, 2018
When and why did @FootballUGA block me? Lol Im confused 🤷🏾♂️
— Kadeem Pledger (@KingOptimistCCX) April 21, 2018
Damn they Blocked me ..Somebody @ them folks and ask why they block me …Thought yal wa any dawg fasho 😢 pic.twitter.com/8gY7gQTSGI
— Trey M. ♎️🎃 (@KvngTres) April 21, 2018
Georgia Tech Twitter also poked some fun:
On the same day #TogetherWeSwarm is the #1 trending topic, @FootballUGA was supsended… 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Bh8yn6huRg
— Barstool Georgia Tech (@BarstoolGT) April 20, 2018
But, Georgia will have more fans at G-Day than the Yellow Jackets will have at any of their regular-season home games, so let them have their fun.
We will provide updates if/when the account goes back live, hopefully in time for the festivities in Athens. The G-Day game kicks off at 4 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN. The game also can be heard on Atlanta radio stations News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB.
Meanwhile @DawgNation is fully functional and will have G-Day coverage all weekend long.
UPDATE Saturday 4 p.m. ET: The team Twitter account is still suspended as the Red and Black squads have kicked off in Athens.
UPDATE Saturday 6 p.m. ET: G-Day is over, with the Black team victorious, and @FootballUGA is still missing, joining the Red team in the L column on Saturday.
