Twitter has finally confirmed what everyone just about already knew — that it’s behind the outage of popular third-party Twitter clients akin to Tweetbot and Twitterific.
In a message posted on its Twitter Dev account for developers, the corporate said: “Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That will lead to some apps not working.” Nevertheless it declined to supply any details about what API rules the developers of the third-party apps have violated.
Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That will lead to some apps not working.
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) January 17, 2023
Responding to the tweet, Tapbots, developer of Tweetbot, said that its app “has been around for over 10 years, we’ve at all times complied with the Twitter API rules. If there’s some existing rule that we’d like to comply with, we’d be joyful to accomplish that, if possible. But we do must know what it’s…@TwitterDev, you recognize the best way to reach us.”
Tweetbot has been around for over 10 years, we've at all times complied with the Twitter API rules.
If there's some existing rule that we’d like to comply with, we'd be joyful to accomplish that, if possible. But we do must know what it’s…@TwitterDev, you recognize the best way to reach us. https://t.co/RujogIjRvx
— Tapbots (@tapbots) January 17, 2023
Tweetbot, Twitterific, and other similar apps suddenly stopped working last week, forcing users to either switch to the usual Twitter app or the Twitter-owned TweetDeck dashboard, or to easily quit the using the social media platform.
Until Tuesday, Twitter had said nothing in regards to the outage, leading some to think that a bug could have caused it. But as the difficulty continued, suspicions grew that the block had been instigated by Twitter HQ, possibly on the order of the corporate’s latest owner, Elon Musk.
This was just about confirmed on Saturday by The Information, which reported that it’d viewed recent internal messages at Twitter, including one by a senior software engineer who described the outage as “intentional.”
The view appears to be that Musk is unhappy with the third-party Twitter apps as they don’t show Twitter ads, a situation that affects the corporate’s ability to spice up its revenue — an ambition that its latest owner has put front and center.
But the shortage of clarity from Twitter is frustrating not just for the various individuals who have enjoyed using these apps for years, but additionally for the developers, who’ve spent an important deal of effort and time refining the software, with no objection from Twitter until now.
It’s not clear what the developers can do to get accepted again, as Twitter hasn’t, at the least publicly, offered any details in regards to the nature of the apparent API violation.
Last month, Musk said “transparency is the important thing to trust.” It’s what many are actually hoping to get from him in order that this current issue could be properly resolved.
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