Facebook blocks Vine's friend-finding feature
updated 09:52 am EST, Fri January 25, 2013
Twitter, Facebook square off over video app
Facebook is now blocking a friend-finding feature in Twitter's new Vine video-sharing app, says The Telegraph. Trying to use the option generates an error message. When it was working, the feature would trawl through a person's Facebook friends to find people to invite to Vine.
Although Vine has garnered a lot of attention, its launch has also been tarnished by a number of technical problems. Yesterday Twitter temporarily disabled sharing Vine posts to Twitter and Facebook, and some people haven't been able to sign into Vine through their Twitter account. Overriding every other concern has been a glitch that accidentally logs someone into another user's account, allowing them to post under that identity and see private information. Twitter has been working on the issue.
Friend-finding options are present in some other apps, but Facebook may be trying to prevent Twitter -- a chief rival -- from gaining easy access to its customers. Last year, Twitter took its own steps against Facebook, disabling inline previews of Instagram photos after Facebook bought out Instagram for roughly $1 billion.
