It may be summer, but the FTC isn't taking time off to relax: Last week, news broke that the agency was launching a probe to investigate Google. Now, it’s taking on Twitter, too.
A source told The Wall Street Journal that the FTC is reviewing Twitter and its interactions with UberMedia, an app developer that builds programs using Twitter data. The focus of the probe isn’t clear, but the source said that it’s “narrow” in scope and won’t affect Twitter’s ad business. UberMedia, which owns apps like UberSocial, Twidroid, and Echofon, confirmed that it had been contacted by the FTC. Its CMO reportedly said, “We intend to fully comply with their request for information.”
Twitter apparently considers UberMedia to be a potential competitor—especially since Twitter began creating its own apps and acquired TweetDeck, which UberMedia also tried to purchase. The two companies got into a little scuffle last February when Twitter blocked UberMedia’s access to tweets because it believed that UberMedia had violated provisions of their terms of service. Twitter has been trying to crack down on third-party app makers, asking at a recent conference that that developers create apps that don't mimic Twitter's own mobile applications or Twitter.com.
