Twitpic Reaches Last Minute Deal With Twitter to Keep Its Photos Alive

Twitpic has reached a last minute deal with Twitter to keep its photo archive alive.

Twitpic previously announced that it was going to shutdown its service due to a trademark battle with Twitter that it could not afford. The company then announced that it would be acquired; however, that deal fell through and Twitpic was set to shutdown today.

In the meantime, a collective of Internet archivists and programmers have been racing to try and save the over 800 million photos that Twitpic was hosting before they disappeared.


“With hundreds of millions of photos at stake – going back to the earliest days of Twitter – we recognized it as a vital part of online history,” said Jason Scott, a member of the Archive Team.

Thankfully, Twitter has stepped in to save those photos. Here's the full announcement from CEO Noah Everett.

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First off I want to say thank you to everyone who has used Twitpic over the years and for your patience with us over the last couple of months. As you know it’s been quite the roller coaster ride.

We weren’t able to find a way to keep Twitpic independent. However, I’m happy to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being. Twitter shares our goal of protecting our users and this data. Also, since Twitpic’s user base consists of Twitter users, it makes sense to keep this data with Twitter.


What this means for Twitpic users:
● Twitpic will no longer be taking on new photos or data (the site will be in a read-only mode)
● The iOS and Android apps have been removed from the app stores and will no longer be supported
● You will still be able to login to your profile to delete content or delete your account on Twitpic.com
● You can still export and download your data / photo archive on Twitpic.com

This will be my (@noaheverett) final chapter with Twitpic, and again I want to say thank you for allowing me to be a part of your photo sharing memories for nearly seven years. It has been an honor.
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