After a weekend in the dog house, UberMedia's Twitter apps UberSocial (formerly UberTwitter) and Twidroyd are back in the mobile-app stores.
UberMedia's Twitter apps ran afoul of Twitter on Friday, which banned the apps over certain policy violations, preventing new users from downloading them and current users from using them. The ban affected Android users of Twidroyd and BlackBerry andiPhone users of UberTwitter.
"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," according to a statement released Friday from the microblogging site.
In response, UberMedia was forced to make certain changes to its apps, including renaming UberTwitter to UberSocial. In an initial review, Twitter confirmed the changes made by UberMedia on Sunday, promising the apps would become available again.
"We've given the developers of twidroyd and UberSocial for Blackberry (formerly UberTwitter) access to the Twitter API again," Twitter said on its Help Center site. "Our initial review indicates that steps have been taken to remedy the violations for these applications. When the developer updates twidroyd and Ubersocial, you'll be able to download their updates to access Tweets again on these applications."
A check of the UberMedia apps confirmed that Twidroyd had returned to the Android Market and the renamed UberSocial was in BlackBerry's App World but had not yet resurfaced in Apple's App Store.
The ban has led to a bit of a "he said, she said" situation. UberMedia had expressed surprise over the ban, claiming that Twitter hadn't raised any concerns about policy violations beforehand. However, Twitter has stated that it's been talking to UberMedia about these issues since early last year.
In a posting on the Q&A site Quora, UberMedia CEO Bill Gross shared the specific reasons why Twitter raised a ruckus over the apps, citing problems with a tweet-elongation service named tmi.me, issues over certain changed links, and the UberTwitter name.
Gross's post triggered several responses, including an official one from Twitter. That then opened the door for other people to chime in on the situation, some critical of UberMedia and others critical of Twitter, especially since the move to ban the apps affected users without any advance warning.
UberMedia's Twitter apps ran afoul of Twitter on Friday, which banned the apps over certain policy violations, preventing new users from downloading them and current users from using them. The ban affected Android users of Twidroyd and BlackBerry andiPhone users of UberTwitter.
"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," according to a statement released Friday from the microblogging site.
In response, UberMedia was forced to make certain changes to its apps, including renaming UberTwitter to UberSocial. In an initial review, Twitter confirmed the changes made by UberMedia on Sunday, promising the apps would become available again.
"We've given the developers of twidroyd and UberSocial for Blackberry (formerly UberTwitter) access to the Twitter API again," Twitter said on its Help Center site. "Our initial review indicates that steps have been taken to remedy the violations for these applications. When the developer updates twidroyd and Ubersocial, you'll be able to download their updates to access Tweets again on these applications."
A check of the UberMedia apps confirmed that Twidroyd had returned to the Android Market and the renamed UberSocial was in BlackBerry's App World but had not yet resurfaced in Apple's App Store.
The ban has led to a bit of a "he said, she said" situation. UberMedia had expressed surprise over the ban, claiming that Twitter hadn't raised any concerns about policy violations beforehand. However, Twitter has stated that it's been talking to UberMedia about these issues since early last year.
In a posting on the Q&A site Quora, UberMedia CEO Bill Gross shared the specific reasons why Twitter raised a ruckus over the apps, citing problems with a tweet-elongation service named tmi.me, issues over certain changed links, and the UberTwitter name.
Gross's post triggered several responses, including an official one from Twitter. That then opened the door for other people to chime in on the situation, some critical of UberMedia and others critical of Twitter, especially since the move to ban the apps affected users without any advance warning.

