On Tuesday afternoon, Twitter confirms why users are unable to access Twitter using third-party apps. As per a Tweet by @TwitterDev, the platform is now enforcing “long-standing API rules” that prompted Twitter to sever these third-party apps’ interface with the API.
What are the rules
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) January 17, 2023
Third-party apps with access to Twitter API first went offline last Thursday. The Verge spoke to Paul Haddad, co-creator of Tweetbot, who reported that he still hasn’t heard back from Twitter about the exact rules that were supposedly broken.
We still heard nothing from anyone at Twitter on any level […] If there’s some long-standing rule that we’ve been unknowingly breaking for the last 10+ years, we’d love to know what it is so that, if possible, we can comply with it.” – Paul Haddad
Not all third-party apps are offline, so there isn’t any clear reason as to why some apps went offline while others continue to work.
Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has been at the helm of drastic changes that took place at Twitter HQ in the last few months. Since then, Twitter has had massive layoffs, Twitter Blue relaunched, twice, and Musk’s own poll voted he should step down as Twitter’s CEO.