After removing prominent app makers like Tweetbot and Twitterific, Twitter today quietly updated its developer terms to ban third-party clients entirely.
Stained Per Engadget, the “restrictions” section of Twitter’s 5,000 words developer agreement was updated with a clause that prohibits “using or accessing the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar product or service to the Twitter Applications.” Earlier this week, Twitter said it was “enforcing long-standing API rules” by banning customer access to its platform, but did not cite which ones. specific rules that the developers were violating. Now we know, retroactively.
As Engadget points out, Twitter clients are part of Twitter history: Twitterific was created before Twitter had its own native iOS app. And they’ve gained more of a following in recent years, thanks in part to the lack of ads.
Twitter’s attitude toward third-party clients has long been permissive and even supportive, and the company went so far as to withdraw a section of its developer terms that discouraged developers from replicating its core service. But that seems to have changed under the leadership of CEO Elon Musk.
Image Credits: Twitter
The decision seems unlikely to foster goodwill towards Twitter at a time when the platform is facing challenges on several fronts. in a blog postTwitterrific’s Sean Heber called Twitter “increasingly capricious” and a company that “no longer recognizes[d] as trustworthy nor do I want to work with him anymore.” Matteo Villa, the developer of Fenix, in an interview with Engadget called the lack of communication “insulting.” (Twitter does not currently have a communications department.)
Twitter is under immense pressure to turn a profit, or at least break even, as advertisers flee the platform, driven by rapidly changing and unpredictable content policies. The company, which is $12.5 billion in debt, is committed for $300 million in its first interest payment and has lost a Estimate $4 billion in value since Musk acquired it in late October 2022. Fidelity recently slashed the value of its Twitter stake by 56%.
Twitter cuts abound. Some employees are bringing their own toilet paper to work after the company cut back on cleaning services, the New York Times reportedand Twitter has stopped paying the rent on several of its offices. Musk has tried to save about $500 million in non-labor costs elsewhere, closing a data center and launching a forced sale after auctioning off office supplies in a bid to recoup costs.
Twitter is also heavily pushing its Twitter Blue plan (now with an annual option), with the goal of turning it into a profit maker. It plans to lift its ban on political ads, going after campaign dollars in the 2024 US election. And the company is reportedly considering selling usernames through online auctions.
