Twitpic Is Closing Up Shop & Giving Twitter The Blame

Twitpic is closing up shop and it’s placing the full blame on Twitter. Founder and CEO of Twitpic, Noah Everett, made the announcement this week that his company would stop all operations on September 25, 2014. According to Everett, Twitter’s legal team made contact with Twitpic’s attorneys and insisted that they abandon their trademark application. If Twitpic refused to comply then Twitter threatened that it would remove the service’s access to their API, the code that allows Twitpic’s users access to share their photos on Twitter.

“Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole-heartedly is rightfully ours,” Everett wrote. “Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic.”

“We’re sad to see Twitpic is shutting down,” a Twitter spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Twitter responded to questions about the Trademark inqury: “We’re sad to see Twitpic is shutting down. We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand.”

What Will Happen To Twitpic Content After September 25, 2014

All of the content on Twitpic will be gone forever after Septemeber 25, 2014. Don’t fret though, users won’t have to work too hard to get copies of their content before the site is shut down.  A download feature where users can retrieve all of their photos and videos quickly and easily will be added to the main site in the upcoming days.

#RIPTwitter May Be Sooner Than We Think

The sad news of Twitpic’s demise isn’t as much about losing one service attached to Twitter, it brings a level of uncertainty to future developers. Why create compatible sites if you are unable to trademark your work? We will have to wait and see what type of affect the Twitpic decision will have on the future of integrated Twitter applications but it’s sure to have some sort of effect on the Twitter’s future.

Twitpic’s closure news came in hours after the Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter is planning to debut a Facebook-style, algorithmically curated newsfeed which created a huge backlash among Twitter users, even coining the hashtag #RIPTwitter. If the social media giant continues to lose support of users, investors, and developers it could follow in the grim footsteps of other extinct social media dinosaurs such as Myspace.

Are you sad to see Twitpic go? Does this change your outlook on the future of Twitter?