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Twitter Thunderclap App Shut Down After One Day, Two Thunderclaps Sent

Jonathan Charles

An app for rapidly sending tweet, called Thunderclap, has been shut down just a day after its release. The app allowed the same tweet to be sent multiple times, designed to bring attention to a specific cause.

Matt Taibi sent the first Thunderclap, which was re-sent by just under 2,000 people (1,921 specifically). The second, and final Thunderclap was directed at Congress members to publish government data in bulk. That was tweeted by 128 people at midday, June 7.

Betabeat reported Twitter probably shut down the app because it bordered on spam. "The article makes it sound noble, but Thunderclap users are just inundated with junk," a user on the Web site wrote. Thunderclap isn't the first app to be pulled, with FAME - also on Twitter - encouraging users to follow and unfollow people to gain a Celebrity-esque status for a day.

"They gave us an automated reply that we are violating the terms of service by sending multiple @mentions and automating sending tweets. A lot of services like Buffer automate. We are trying to contact some of the executives at Twitter now. Hope we can resolve it," Hashem Bajwa, founder of the service De-De - which made Thunderclap - said. The long-term strategy for Thunderclap was to integrate other social networks: the Facebook launch was due to happen in two weeks.

The service uses a Kickstarter-esque model, where a user sets a goal for "crowdspeaking" - think crowdfunding - and the message is sent on Twitter if other users sign up to send the tweet.

Twitter didn't officially approve the app so that, along with the spammy nature of the service, probably led to its demise. It hasn't commented on the news.

"Successful Thunderclaps require passionate people that believe an idea and message they want heard. We amplify their passion and help their message resonate farther," Bajwa said in a e-mail to Mashable during the launch of the service. He said then anyone could use Thunderclap, because the app was based around a "worthwhile" message rather than popular social media figures. 

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