Twitter Stiffs Meerkat In Bid To Crush Competition

Despite our kind words and expectations for Meerkat, the latest and greatest app for streaming and posting video on Twitter, it appears the social media giant has other ideas.

Twitter has rescinded Meerkat’s access to the platform’s social graph. Fundamentally it means that Meerkat users cannot import their Twitter profiles and contacts over to the app. In even easier terms, the relationship between Twitter and Meerkat is well and truly over.

“We are limiting their access to Twitter’s social graph, consistent with our internal policy,” a spokesperson said. “Their users will still be able to distribute videos on Twitter and log in with their Twitter credentials.”

If it seems like a strange move then this should clear things up: Twitter just so happened to announce the purchase of Periscope at this year’s SXSW. Periscope offers much the same product as Meerkat.

While Twitter cannot be condemned for trying to further their own products, even pre-launch, the speed and silence with which they have strangled Meerkat shows an unwavering contempt of anything that could be deemed ‘competition’.

According to reports, Meerkat and its staff remain in high spirits.

“Twitter’s move here shows how significant Meerkat has become,” said founder Ben Rubin. “This is a small bump for Meerkat — a product built in only 8 weeks by one person — and a sad day for the Twitter developer community, who build amazing products that help us connect with each other. And lastly, this is just the beginning for Meerkat. The revolution will be live streamed.”

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