Facebook on Friday cut off social graph access for popular messaging application MessageMe. The app launched last week and quickly made its way to number two on the social networking platform in the United States.
The app used the Facebook platforms API information for its “Find Friends” functionality. Users could connect their Facebook accounts in order to find other friends using the MessageMe platform. On Friday morning access to the Find Friends feature was cut off.
This is not the first time Facebook has cut off access to its API. Last month Facebook shut off Voxer’s social graph access. Unlike MessageMe the Voxer app was happily connecting to Facebook data for more than a year. Facebook cut off Voxer integration just as it launched its own free voice calling feature.
When cutting off Voxer access Facebook cited the following section from its terms of service policy:
Reciprocity and Replicating core functionality: (a) Reciprocity: Facebook Platform enables developers to build personalized, social experiences via the Graph API and related APIs. If you use any Facebook APIs to build personalized or social experiences, you must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook. (b)Replicating core functionality: You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission.
It’s not just small startups that are facing the wrath of Facebook API revocation, Twitter and Google have both complained in the past that grabbing user information from Facebook has been extremely difficult.
MessageMe in the meantime does not rely on Facebook integration, instead choosing to focus on a users own phone located address book.
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