Twitter recently banned UberTwitter, a hot phone app for iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Reportedly UberTwitter is in violation of Twitter copyright and trademarks. Twitter maintains that it has been in contact with UberTwitter since April 2010 and says the suspension will be lifted as soon as UberTwitter affects some small changes.
According to a statement obtained by TechCrunch, Twitter explained the violations “include, but aren’t limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money.”
This begs the question: who’s on the inside now? UberTwitter (which recently changed its name to UberSocial, to comply with Twitter’s demands) or Twitter itself? Is the Twitter move going to push millions of users to UberTwitter? Obviously UberTwitter is offering them something they want.
UberTwitter says, “We were immediately in touch with Twitter, and the changes they asked us to make were very small. As a result, we have completed the changes, and new apps are currently being posted to their respective stores.”
Both UberTwitter and Twidroyd are owned by UberMedia, which recently purchased TweetDeck, another Twitter client. Following the acquisition of TweetDeck, around 20 percent of tweets posted each day are sent via apps controlled by the company, according to estimates by Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur.
UberMedia CEO Bill Gross released the following statement:
PASADENA, CA – February 18, 2011 – Early Friday morning, Twitter shut off access to its service by several of our Twitter client applications: UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent. Twitter then notified us that they believed we were in violation of several provisions of their terms of service.
We were immediately in touch with Twitter, and the changes they asked us to make were very small. As a result, we have completed the changes, and new apps are currently being posted to their respective stores. Twitter has assured us that as soon as those changes were complete, they would reactivate our applications.
Twitter also asked us to modify the name of UberTwitter. We began a process of changing the name three weeks ago by polling our users, and we’ve decided based on their input to change the product name to UberSocial, which we completed today.
To our millions of loyal users, we appreciate your patience during this temporary period. We look forward to continuing our innovations on the Twitter platform.
Bill Gross, CEO
UberMedia, Inc.