Twitter entered into a new developer agreement on Thursday, prohibiting developers from using its API to create a “replacement or similar” service or product to Twitter’s own applications. Previously, the platform closed apps from its API.
In the renewed developer agreement has added a new sentence to the restrictions on using Twitter’s Licensed Materials. Those Licensed Materials include access to Twitter’s API. Under that new sentence, developers may not use Licensed Materials to create, or attempt to create, a “substitute or similar service or product” to Twitter’s own products.
That sentence was not true until last Thursday explicit in the developer agreement, evident the Wayback Machine. Several third-party Twitter apps reported last week suddenly having problems using Twitter’s API. Tweetbot, Twitterific, Tweetbot and Talon, among others, said that they could not or less offer their services as a result.
Earlier this week Twitter acknowledged that it was a deliberate action to close third-party apps from its api. In addition, the platform said to maintain “long-standing API rules”, without further explanation. It is therefore not clear which API rules the company was referring to at the time or why the company suddenly closed access after years of allowing it.
Presumably Twitter stopped this access because the company lacks advertising revenue by these third party apps. The api may still be used for other purposes, such as better searching for tweets, managing accounts, for advertising purposes and sharing tweets on external sites.
