On the surface, Facebook seems like the perfect venue on which to build a service, even a business. It's wildly popular, easy to develop on, and is the source of viral spread for many apps and services. If you cross a certain line, though, Facebook becomes that pretty face with an axe behind its back ready to hack your business into bits and pieces. The new MessageMe app isn't the first victim of Facebook's jealous blade, but it's one of the most bizarre because it doesn't appear to be the type of thing that Facebook would chop up. They did, though, cutting off access to Social Graph today and giving yet another reason why you'd have to be crazy to build around Facebook if there's even the slightest change that they could view you as a competitor. Vine. Voxer. Google. The list keeps growing. According to Facebook's platform policy, the key is that you have to reciprocate and you can't compete with core products.
Reciprocity and Replicating core functionality: (a) Reciprocity: Facebook Platform enables developers to build personalized, social experiences via the Graph API and related APIs. If you use any Facebook APIs to build personalized or social experiences, you must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook. (b) Replicating core functionality: You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission.
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