Antitrust Regulator Makes Twitter Inquiries

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Internet messaging-service Twitter and its interactions with at least one other company that builds programs using Twitter data.

The precise focus of the review isn't clear, but representatives of the FTC's antitrust arm have requested information from a company called UberMedia Inc., which owns applications that let people read and send "tweets," or messages, broadcast by Twitter users. The review is "narrow" in scope and won't impact Twitter's fledgling advertising business. UberMedia's chief marketing officer said that the company was contacted by the agency and "we intend to fully comply with their request for information." Twitter considers UberMedia to be a potential competitor. In February UberMedia, which owns Twidroyd and other applications that let people access and send tweets, said Twitter shut off its access to tweets because it believed UberMedia had violated "several provisions of their terms of service." UberMedia said it worked with Twitter to resolve the issues, and service to those applications was restored. At a recent conference, a Twitter employee noted that "with more people joining Twitter and accessing the service in multiple ways, a consistent user experience is more crucial than ever." The employee asked that app developers create apps that don't mimic Twitter's own mobile-device applications or Twitter DOT com.