Twitter changes developer terms to bar third-party clients, shutting down Tweetbot and Twitterrific

What he said or did

Twitter added a clause to its developer agreement forbidding use of its API to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications, after third-party apps had already stopped working without notice.

Background

Independent clients such as Tweetbot and Twitterrific had run for more than a decade and earned subscription income. Twitter's developer account said on 17 January that it was enforcing its long-standing API rules.

Official response

Twitterrific's developer blamed an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter.

Fact-checks and findings

Engadget noted that Twitter's earlier developer terms had only discouraged, not prohibited, replicating its core service, and that a 2021 update had removed that language.

What happened next

Twitterrific was discontinued and Tweetbot shut down; several developers moved to building Mastodon apps.

Sources

TechCrunch
19 Jan 2023
Engadget
19 Jan 2023

This entry records what was publicly said or done, as reported by the sources above. Quotes are attributed to the person who made them.

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