What a week for tech brands.  It was a couple of weeks of pain for Twitter.  Twitter got in the hot seat after suspending Guy Adam’s account.  He is Los Angeles bureau chief of Britain’s The Independent newspaper

Twitter’s reversal of fortune was followed by its own blog update:

“The team working closely with NBC around our Olympics partnership did proactively identify a Tweet that was in violation of the Twitter Rules and encouraged them to file a support ticket with our Trust and Safety team to report the violation, as has now been reported publicly. Our Trust and Safety team did not know that part of the story and acted on the report as they would any other.”  (Read here)

CBSNews has reported (read here) and speculated that Guy Adam’s account may have been suspended simply because Guy was blasting NBC too hard.  Judging by the twitter commentary around the events, I don’t think he’s the only one sitting in that camp alone.  The Olympics have become complicated.  The “Olympic Spirit” seems lost in all of it.  Brand advertisers seem more powerful than the IOC itself and the social community is either more engaged or simply more annoyed and less patient with extravagant openings, wall-gardened production values, and way too many commercials.  #NBCFail is the new manifesto for a disgruntled and globally-connected community of digerati that won’t settle for tape-delay or programming that is not set to their own rules.

Twitter’s recent actions around API are also causing a big stink too.  News today mentions that Flipboard co-founder and CEO has pulled away from Twitter’s board. (Full VentureBeat article).  Reasons are speculative but we may never know the real story.

“As Twitter’s board ecosystem of third-party developers is still struggling to get its head around upcoming API changes from the microblogging service, a few folks are speculating that the Flipboard exec’s decision is a signal that he and other major Twitter API users aren’t happy with the directions Twitter is taking.”

Late last week, TechCrunch reported on the story that Twitter had shut off its API to Instagram.  (Click here)

We’ve learned that the feature is missing due to API restrictions from Twitter’s end, restrictions that possibly came about over concerns about Instagram’s scale and its strain on data pulls.

…

Twitter’s agenda here isn’t at all clear, but one possibility is that it wants to control the photos experience on its platform (and preclude Facebook from doing the same). Selectively limiting API access by company is definitely strange behavior in an ecosystem that thrives on API symbiosis. Imagine if Google just decided to shut off Google Maps access to apps randomly?

Then this story on TechCrunch has been making ways.  Of the 500 million plus Twitter accounts, only $170 million are active.  (Read here) Luckily, Twitter is aggressively dealing with spambots. I must be helping them in their plight because I am reporting spam and blocking all the porn stars following me as best I can. 

“Guyot also points out that the 500 million-account landmark it announced yesterday does not include spambots. “Twitter is massively deleting spam user accounts,” he noted. “Our figures do not include these deleted accounts.”

Then this morning, CNET reported that 8.7% of the 955 million accounts are “fake”.  (Read article).  These stories must make Wall Street insiders squirm because they’re crying about all the spilt milk and lost opportunity. 

It’s been a tough few weeks in Tech Land.  It was only a few days ago that I reported on Apple’s uneven-handedness with a self-publisher.  Full article here.

Related articles

• NBC Retracts Complaint, Guy Adams Is Back On Twitter (techcrunch.com)
• Flipboard Founder Mike McCue Steps Down From Twitter Board Of Directors (techcrunch.com)
• Twitter Apologizes For Conflict Of Interest, Pointing Out Olympics Tweet To NBC (techcrunch.com)
• No API For You: Twitter Shuts Off “Find Friends” Feature For Instagram - TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
• Twitter restores Olympics critic’s account after NBC rescinds complaint (mercurynews.com)