meerkattopTwitter is making Meerkat squeal, just as the fast-growing live video streaming app appeared ready to capture countless eyeballs at the SXSW conference.

Twitter confirmed this evening that it was cutting off Meerkat’s access to the Twitter’s social graph, a move that Buzzfeed, which first spotted the change, said would “severely kneecap” the service. It also comes as Twitter confirmed its acquisition of Meerkat competitor Periscope.

“We are limiting their access to Twitter’s social graph, consistent with our internal policy,” a Twitter spoeksperson told Buzzfeed. “Their users will still be able to distribute videos on Twitter and log in with their Twitter credentials.”

Ironically, Meerkat cofounder Ben Rubin took to Twitter to criticize the decision, calling it a “sad day for the Twitter developer community.” Here’s a string of Rubin’s Tweets.

meerkat-tweets1

Meerkat is tightly integrated with Twitter, allowing viewers to easily get notified of live streams. At GeekWire, we’ve used the service to live stream from the KIRO 97.3 FM radio studios in Seattle where we host our weekly podcast and radio show.

Meerkat also was the subject of a column today by GeekWire columnist Monica Guzman, who gushed about the service and its airtight integration with Twitter. Wrote Guzman:

You don’t capture moments on Meerkat. You free them. In that sense, other kinds of social media are middlemen. Why take a picture or post 140 characters? If you want people to see the world through your eyes, just go ahead and let them.

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