Twitter's new video sharing service experienced some problems during its launch on Thursday.
The social media site acquired Vine, a six-second video looping app, in October 2012, but had been testing different loop lengths from four to 10 seconds long as well as deciding whether the service would be an integral part of Twitter or a standalone service, according to CNet. Ultimately, Vine "works in conjunction with Twitter, but doesn't depend on it," the article noted.
Unfortunately, Vine's release did no go as smoothly as Twitter had hoped. One Vine user, Keith Whamond, told AllThingsD he had somehow become logged into another user's account and was able to post as that other user, Tyler Petersen. In addition, Whamond had access to all of Petersen's information, including his unlisted phone number and email, as well as the user settings.
It became clear this problem was not just theoretical when "a number of Vine users reported activity being posted to their accounts by people other than themselves," reported AllThingsD. This led to some users having to clarify to their followers that they were not the ones posting to their accounts.
As of Thursday evening, according to the publication, "Vine has disabled sharing videos… And a number of users are reporting that they are no longer able to sign into the service through their Twitter account."
Although Whamond told AllThingsD he was able to log in to his own account after logging out of Petersen's and restarting the app, it is not known how many users were affected by this problem and have had their information compromised. This could lead to major legal and ethical headaches for both Vine and Twitter.
For more:
- see the CNet article
- read the AllThingsD story
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