14 DAY TRIAL // If you go on Facebook and try to send someone a tsu.co link, or share it on your timeline, you'll have the unpleasant surprise of getting an error message.
Nothing new here, because Facebook has been banning domains for years. In the past, it was easy for Facebook's engineers to justify banning a domain known for online scams, fraud, and spam. But we're afraid that explanation does not hold water in this particular case.
The reason is that tsu.co is the domain of the Tsu social network, a recently launched website that works exactly like Facebook, MySpace, hi5, and other social media sites, but with a twist.
Instead of letting users interact with each other and capitalizing on its success by showing ads or promoting content, Tsu keeps only 10% of the ad revenue and distributes the rest to its users.
This launch strategy has paid dividends, and in its first six months, over 3.5 million people registered on Tsu, more than Twitter or Facebook ever got in the same period.
Nobody believes your explanation, Facebook!
"We do not allow developers to incentivize content sharing on our platform because it encourages spammy sharing," said Melanie Ensign, a Facebook spokesperson to CNN.
Despite the logical explanation, it's easy to read between the lines. It's pretty obvious what Facebook is doing, and the company is going to get in trouble because of it.
Sabotaging your competition is what initially got Microsoft in trouble with Netscape (in the browser wars), and recently even Google when it "allegedly" tried to block access to Android for some competitors. Microsoft went through a thorough anti-trust investigation that ended with serious sanctions, and Google is going through a similar one right now.
Either way, we don't believe Tsu's rise is going to be too hampered by this recent incident, mainly because any press is good press.
You think Tsu is too good to be true? Check out this short ABC News interview with Sebastian Sobczak, Tsu's founder.
