Rs20 million fine for a deleted tweet: The cost of irreverence? |
Rs20 million fine for a deleted tweet: The cost of irreverence?
On March 30, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) slapped a Rs20 million fine on fast bowler Naseem Shah for a post that was promptly deleted from his X account, and for which he publicly apologised.
The tweet, posted from Shah’s official X account, had quote-tweeted the PCB’s post, which featured Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz being welcomed by the interior minister and the cricket board’s chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, at the opening ceremony of the Pakistan Super League.
Those who follow Shah on the social media platform saw the tweet and instantly knew trouble would follow. Within a short span of time, they saw the tweet disappear, followed by a new post clarifying that the account had been hacked.
Quick recovery of a hacked account, they thought.
The cricketer subsequently fired his social media manager and even tendered an apology via X. However, for a post that was probably up for all of 10 minutes and was followed by a disclaimer, the PCB issued a show-cause notice to Shah along with disciplinary proceedings and a whopping fine.
The board cited violations of various clauses of his central contract and social media code. The fine was estimated to be equivalent to eight months of the cricketer’s annual income and has since made global headlines.
One of the early questions raised amid the fiasco was whether the tweet was posted by Shah or his social media manager. If it was the former, why was the social media manager fired and blacklisted by the PCB? And if it was the social media manager who did it, why was the cricketer fined?
Whoever posted it — Shah, the manager, or a third party — liability typically lies with the account holder.
Over the past few years, it has become common practise for social media managers to run accounts or, at an organisational level, for multiple people to have access to and post from official accounts. But come time for heads to roll or consequences to set in, it is always the person in whose name it is who faces the music.
Sometimes things are done........