Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011; it reports news from that month about an update to Twitter’s API terms of service. Twitter has since become X, and its API policies, including paid access since 2023, have changed completely.
Twitter, the microblogging network, is getting serious with developers of new and existing applications that make use of the Twitter API. Twitter has started expelling and shutting down these applications based on a single criterion: innovation.
All it asks is that they follow the rules, and last week Twitter updated the terms of service for its API.
When app developers asked whether they could build client apps that imitate the general Twitter user experience, the company’s answer was a resounding “no”.
Twitter has already begun removing older services, some of which had been running for more than two years, as in the case of UberMedia. This has caused a lot of tension among developers, who are starting to accuse Twitter of trying to win back its “lost share of the business” by any means.
As Twitter’s final message, Ryan Sarver (head of the Twitter API) said in his statement that developers should please innovate rather than simply call the API to pull users’ timelines. The terms of service are very clear and are there to be followed, he added, and Twitter will not hesitate to shut down apps at the slightest breach of these rules, whoever that may upset.
Others already affected include Twapperkeeper, Favstar.fm, Twitoaster (whose creator now works for Twitter) and, as mentioned, UberMedia, which has been one of the hardest hit and most taken by surprise.
In my view, it’s normal for Twitter to turn away this kind of application, and completely understandable that it wants to win back its market now that it is in the phase of growing its profits.
Featured image: OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOS, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
