Tokyo Olympics sprints double gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah was mistakenly blocked on Instagram, parent company Facebook Inc has confirmed.

Thompson-Herah, the fastest woman on the planet, was blocked on Tuesday for sharing videos of her winning both the 100 and 200 metre races on her Instagram account. Her access to the app was reinstated only several hours later.

Thompson-Herah said on Twitter that she was blocked from accessing her account because she posted videos that she "did not have the right to do so".

However, a spokesperson for Facebook told Reuters news agency that while the content had been removed, the suspension had been wrongly applied to the Jamaican sprinter.

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Sharing videos from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on social media is not allowed, even for athletes, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday as it has to protect the rights of broadcasters' who have paid money for airing the events. These broadcasters hold exclusive rights to broadcast the Games. Their rights include distribution on social media.

"That money comes to the IOC. We have to protect their rights and therefore the income which we can redistribute to athletes and sport," a Reuters report cited IOC spokesman Mark Adams as saying.

The IOC will receive more than $4 billion in broadcasting rights for the period that includes the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics and the Tokyo Games.

The biggest share of this pie comes from U.S. broadcaster NBCUniversal – which has paid $7.65 billion to extend its broadcast rights for the Olympics till 2032.

Adams said that 90% of the income from broadcasters that the IOC gets is invested back into the Games and in supporting sports and athletes.

However athletes "are invited to share the content" posted by these broadcasters on their accounts, the IOC spokesman said.

Any content that breaks these rules is removed immediately. It is not clear where the footage the sprinter posted came from.

Thompson-Herah recorded 21.53 seconds in the 200 metres dash, just 0.19 seconds off Florence Griffith-Joyner's long-standing world record. She will be running for her country Jamaica, in the 4x100m relay final on Friday.