As a long-standing user of Twidroyd, I am following with interest the situation with regard to that app’s suspension by Twitter for “violation of policies”.
Here’s the text from Twitter’s statement. Note the phrase “may affect a large number of users” (my emphasis). Note also, in the final paragraph, how Twitter push their official apps at every opportunity.
2/18/2011
Regardless of how you access Twitter, we are dedicated to making Twitter better, faster and more reliable for you. As part of this effort, we ask applications that work with Twitter to abide by a simple set of rules that we believe are in the interests of our users, and the health and vitality of the Twitter platform as a whole. We often take actions to enforce these rules.We have suspended UberTwitter and twidroyd for violating our policies.
Every day, we suspend hundreds of applications that are in violation of our policies. Generally, these apps are used by a small number of users. We are taking the unusual step of sharing this with you because today’s suspension may affect a larger number of users.
We are committed to helping you continue to use Twitter during the disruption of these applications. You can download Twitter for Blackberry, Twitter for Android and other official Twitter apps here. You can also try our mobile web site or apps from other third-party developers.
Bill Gross, Founder and CEO of UberMedia, posted this response.
Here’s what I see in Twidroyd (v5.01) when I run the app:
Two tweets from Twitter/com@support (a handy feature of the Twitter API) suggesting Twidroid users might like to try the official Twitter app for Android.
This only adds to suspicions that Twitter is playing a game here. The official Twitter app for Android recently received a facelift and now looks a lot like Twidroyd. I’m sure the folks at Twitter would love to see more Android users go over to their app.
In a statement, Twitter say they’ve restored access to their API for twidroyd and UberSocial for Blackberry (formerly UberTwitter). (no word on the Android app at this time). At the foot of that statement there are unmissable links to the official Twitter apps for Blackberry, iPhone and Android. How blatant is that?
Twitter say that hundreds of apps are regularly suspended for violation of policies. With thousands of developers around the world producing apps interfacing with social media, this is no surprise. Suspension of these apps affects relatively few Twitter users.
It is surprising, though, that Twitter would take this step with Twidroyd and UberTwitter, apps whose users number in the thousands.
Perhaps this should be a wake-up call to us all, leading to the spawning of an open, federated Twitter-like system, no longer vulnerable to the god-like powers of a few.
