Twitter updates its Developer Agreement; Bans third-party apps completely from accessing the site

Twitter confirmed yesterday that it is no longer permitting third-party developers to create Twitter clients—apps that give an experience similar to the main Twitter app. The ban prevents all third-party apps, such as Tweetbot, Twitterrific, Aviary, Echofon, Birdie, and others, from accessing the social media platform.

This was confirmed in an update to its developer agreement that officially banned third-party clients for the social network. Effective as of January 19, 2023 Twitter’s new developer agreement for the use of the Twitter API directly bans the creation of third-party clients for the platform.

The new rules states that developers cannot use the company’s API to create “a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Application,” a decision that has not gone down well with the community.

The new rules also note that the developers “will not or attempt to (and will not allow others to) a) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or translate the Twitter API, or otherwise attempt to derive source code, trade secrets or know-how in or underlying any Twitter API…”

Twitter’s new agreement doesn’t explain why the company suddenly decides to change the policy. A potential reason might be because Elon Musk wants to turn the platform into a revenue-generating site through paid features and ad generation.

It is highly unlikely that this decision will result in an increase in trust toward Twitter at a time when the platform is facing challenges on multiple fronts. Twitterrific’s Sean Heber referred to the company as “increasingly capricious” and “no longer recognize[d] as trustworthy…”

Due to unpredictable, fast-changing content policies, advertisers are fleeing Twitter, putting pressure on the platform to make a profit or break even. Since Musk bought it in October 2022, the company, which has $12.5 billion in debt, has lost $4 billion in value and must pay $300 million in interest.

Twitter is making a lot of austerity measures so as to reduce company expenses. For example, the New York Times reported that some employees are bringing their own tissue paper after the company cut janitorial services and stopped paying rent for several offices. Musk has also tried to save $500 million by closing a data centre and holding a fire sale after auctioning office equipment.

Twitter hopes to make money from its Twitter Blue plan, now with an annual option. It announced earlier this month that it is “relaxing” its ban on political advertisements. This is a part of its strategy to win more campaign funding for the elections in the United States in 2024. Following a tweet by Elon Musk last month, Twitter may soon sell usernames for revenue. Whoosh!