It seems as though Twitter (News - Alert) is beginning to spiral out of control, as oftentimes many people seem to use it to send hate tweets on their feed. Greek Olympic jumper, Voula Papachristou is a perfect example, as she was recently expelled from the 2012 London Olympics for sending a racist tweet about African immigrants and the West Nile virus.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee left the athlete, according to a recent Yahoo news article, in Athens after sending a tweet that read, “With so many Africans in Greece at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food.” 

The comment offended many throughout Greece, and became a huge international story when the Greek officials decided to kick her off the Olympic team. The triple jumper then issued a worldwide apology after being released from the competition. 

She recently explained to Reuters (News - Alert), “I have not slept at all and to be honest I am still trying to come to terms with what has happened. I am trying to stay calm otherwise I would lose control.  I am thankful to my coach and family and so many other people who have stuck by me… After so many years of hurt and sacrifices to try and get to my first Olympics I am very bitter and upset. But what has upset me the most is the excessive reaction and speed of the disciplinary decision.”

The article indeed goes on to suggest that the athlete has a subsequent reason to be upset, as there are no Greek Twitter rules or guidelines of conduct for Athletes. However, she should not be surprised because touching on such a sensitive subject of race, religion, or gender can cause uproar even if it was not meant to be racist.

This does not even begin to taper into the issues regarding improper use of social networks. People tend to hoist a lot of negative feelings out on this particular network, and it is simply out there for the world to see, and perceive how they wish. 

Racism is especially one of those issues that could completely shatter and discontinue anyone’s success, if perceived in an inappropriate manner.

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