Reports claim FTC investigating Twitter

Two published reports claim that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating communications between Twitter and Ubermedia, a company that develops applications to help users commiserate and follow each other using the online messaging service. The question at hand is whether or not Twitter is allegedly limiting competition by purchasing or banning developers outside of the company.
The Business Insider blog and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that the investigation is in its infancy with a probe on how San Francisco-based Twitter operates with companies that build apps for its messaging platform in the areas of advertising, shortening URLs and sharing photos. UberMedia’s website describes itself as an independent developer of applications that helps users find and communicate with one another on Twitter.
The name given to 140-character messages on the Twitter site is “tweets,” and the company reportedly blocked Pasadena, Calif.-based UberMedia from accessing tweets earlier this year but restored access to the platform soon after. The anti-competitive claim is fairly common in the technology industry and may or may not lead to a full investigation.
UberMedia stated in an email that “we have been contacted by the FTC and we intend to fully comply with their request for information.” So far, Twitter’s Sean Garrett and the FTC’s Peter Kaplan have declined comment.
The Pew Research Center reports a recent study that Twitter is used by 13% of American adults, a healthy bump up from 8% in November.
Last week, the FTC gave Google Inc. (GOOG) a subpoena looking into complaints about whether the company’s dominance amounts to any antitrust practices. As one of a few solid competitors to Facebook Inc., Twitter created apps for smartphones last year and is looking to further diversify its services.