If you’ve been using Twitterific, Tweetbot, or any other third-party Twitter client that you’ve recently found to not work, we have bad news for you. It looks like they will remain banned forever, but the way Elon Musk’s Twitter enforces that ban is fishy to say the least.
Last week, some of Twitter’s most popular third-party clients suddenly stopped working with no official explanation from Twitter itself or notice to the developers. Twitterific and Tweetbot developers were left in the dark just like us. Expressing Concerns on Twitter(opens in new window)a few days later, Twitter and its typically vocal CEO Musk remained silent on the matter.
And on January 17th, Twitter developer account casually tweets(opens in new window) The company “enforces long-standing API rules” that may “break some apps.”
Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new window)
Even then, it was unclear which API rules were broken and by whom.Then Twitter updated developer agreement(opens in new window) (via The Verge(opens in new window)) The following sentence: “You will not (and will not permit others to) use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create or create alternative or similar services or products for the Twitter Application; .”
Twitter doesn’t explicitly point to this rule, but Twitterific and Tweetbot are both apps that mimic (and enhance) Twitter functionality, so they could be the culprits behind the ban.
Twitter is hosting a garage sale (sort of)
But here’s the confusing part. If you check the same document on the Wayback Machine, which keeps track of website changes over time, you’ll see the above sentence quoted. was not in order(opens in new window) Until January 19th, that’s two days after Twitter tweeted about the “old rules.”
I checked an old snapshot of Twitter’s Developer Agreement page (here(opens in new window), here(opens in new window), here(opens in new window)When here(opens in new window)), I couldn’t find a “create a substitute” sentence. It’s possible that Twitter had that sentence (or something similar) in their document at some point, but I haven’t been able to find it. It’s also possible that the same or similar rules were applied at one point, just with different wording. But Twitter seems to have opted to first block third-party clients, then point out a “long-standing” rule that doesn’t exist, and add that rule to its developer agreement.
In any case, Twitter owns its own API and is free to create and enforce rules associated with it, but it would be more courteous to the developers of these apps (some of them has been around for over a decade and has loyal users). below), which provides a heads-up and clarification on the issue.
Developer The Iconfactory published a blog post after Twitterific was blocked.(opens in new window) The situation pointed to the confusion on Twitter after Musk laid off most of the company’s employees. “There has been no official word from Twitter about what’s going on, but it’s surprising because the new owners have eliminated an employee dedicated to keeping the API up and running smoothly. No. In an update on January 17, the day Twitter tweeted about its “long-standing” rules, Iconfactory said, “For the past 16 years, we have respected public (Twitter’s) API rules. has no knowledge of any recent changes to these rules or what those changes are.”
Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new window)
Similarly, on January 17, Tweetbot creator Tapbots tweeted:
On Thursday, Iconfactory followed up with a new blog post(opens in new window), saying that Twitterific is deprecated. “We are sorry to say that the sudden and dignified demise of this app was due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by the increasingly fickle Twitter. Twitter is no longer perceived to be trustworthy. and no longer want to cooperate,” the post said.
“We are sorry to say that the sudden and dignified demise of this app was due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by the increasingly fickle Twitter.”
Neither Twitter nor Musk have disclosed a reason for blocking third-party clients, but the likely reasons are the fact that Tweetbots and Twitterific are somehow superior to Twitter’s official client, and the company’s user base. It could be the fact that you are trying to consolidate in one place. Earn more money from ads and their newly redesigned Twitter Blue subscription service.
