Twitter App To Let You Auto-Follow Facebook Friends BLOCKED By Facebook

UPDATE: A Twitter spokesperson told the Huffington Post: "Facebook has notified us that they have blocked the update to our application, and we are working on a resolution with them."

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Twitter upgraded its Facebook app with a new feature that would enable users to automatically follow their Facebook friends on Twitter.

The Twitter Facebook app aims to streamline the process by which users can see which of their Facebook friends are on Twitter and then, with just a single click, follow their tweets.

Twitter introduced the upgraded app on its official blog:

Today, we're improving our Find Friends section to make it easier to find and follow the people you already know -- your friends on Facebook and connections on LinkedIn -- who use Twitter. Our Facebook app, which launched in 2007, now shows which of your Facebook friends are on Twitter and lets you follow them instantly and save them to a list. The app also lets you post your Tweets to your Facebook profile and now, to one of your Facebook pages too.

TechCrunch explained how to take advantage of the Twitter/Facebook integration:

When you click on the "Find Friends" tab in the "Find People" area on Twitter, you'll see this new option to find friends on Facebook. Clicking on this takes you over to the Twitter app on Facebook which, if you have it installed, will show you which of your Facebook friends also using this app, you're currently not following on Twitter (another tab shows you which of your friend you're already following). You can individually follow these people on Twitter with one click -- or you can choose to make a list on Twitter with all of your Facebook Friends.

However, almost immediately after introducing the ability to look up Facebook friends on Twitter, Facebook appears to have blocked the app. Why it has been blocked is unknown--As TechCrunch notes, "It's not yet clear if this block is intentional or if it was simply getting hit too quickly and they automatically pulled the plug." Twitter wrote on its blog, "The Facebook app cannot currently access your Facebook friend list. We believe this is an issue on Facebook's end."

See the screenshot below:

Is this Twitter/Facebook sync something you would use?

Comments

[Jesse P. Steinberg]

11:08 PM on 06/23/2010

Why does Facebook care? Oh let me guess... seeing they cant control what info they can sell to 3rd parties they don't want to integrate it into FB.

[josefhiggins]

10:21 PM on 06/23/2010

Twitter's obligations and priorities aren't in order. Before Twitter introduce any social improvements, it first must fix the problem with their site accessibility. Everyday for the past two months, their site is down for an extend period. Whats really bad is the down time seems to happen during the most busy times of days. Users are leaving in groups. Twitter can't afford to lose any of their customers as it seems most Twitter users move to Facebook. If Twitter can't fix their down time problem, they won't last the year. Twitter is already following the failed play book of MySpace seem not to be doing anything about it.

[taxolotl]

11:39 PM on 06/23/2010

twitter is planning an overhaul, but they delayed it for the world cup, since there will be a major disruption while they upgrade their system to handle the load.

[burnsashley]

06:33 PM on 06/23/2010

Very Weird. Why would FB block this? I wish all of the social networking sites were integrated to some degree. It's so much easier to keep up with... streamline it... please oh please.

[burnsashley]

06:32 PM on 06/23/2010

I would definitely use it. It's much easier to find friends on facebook than twitter IMHO. I would love to integrate the 2. I'm not a big facebook user. I usually only post to facebook via twitter :).

[7tsgirl]

01:30 AM on 06/24/2010

i don't have my accounts linked and I prefer it that way...most times the stuff i post on Twitter I don't want family and friends on FB to see and vice versa.

[pambresuX]

06:27 PM on 06/23/2010

Sad world