Un-suspended now after changes made, but row highlights Twitter's evolving role as platform owner - and rival.
Apps from US firm UberTwitter apparently generate as much as 20% of all tweets, so news that they had been blocked by Twitter over the weekend predictably caused a stir among users and developers alike.
UberTwitter, twidroyd and UberCurrent were all blocked on Friday by Twitter, leaving users in the lurch. In a statement, Twitter said that the block was due to the apps violating its policies and trademarks:
"These 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," explained the statement.
For his part, UberTwitter CEO Bill Gross claimed that the blockage "took us by surprise because they didn’t raise them before", but moved quickly to make changes, including changing the company's name to UberSocial.
The changes seemingly mollified Twitter. "We’ve given the developers of twidroyd and UberSocial for Blackberry (formerly UberTwitter) access to the Twitter API again," explains the company in an update. "Our initial review indicates that steps have been taken to remedy the violations for these applications."
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The row caused such a stink partially because Twitter is the platform owner that polices violations of its terms, but also a competitor for apps like UberTwitter, through its own official mobile apps. The fact that UberTwitter users were encouraged to download these official clients during the blockage does not cast Twitter in a favourable light.
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