Twitter confirms that it is deliberately blocking numerous third-party clients

Users of various third-party Twitter clients have been frustrated over the last week as their chosen apps stopped working. There was speculation that Twitter was blocking apps on purpose, with internal communication appearing to substantiate this.

Now we know for sure that it is the case, with the company confirming it in a tweet. Twitter says that it is merely "enforcing its long-standing API rules", conceding that this "may result in some apps not working". But there is confusion from app developers who say that Twitter is not revealing which rules it is referring to.

See also:

• Microsoft announces general availability of Azure OpenAI Service and promises ChatGPT soon
• Tweetbot and other third-party clients stop working as Twitter 'intentionally' blocks API access
• Major security breach exposes usernames and passwords of Norton Password Manager customers

Affected clients include the likes of Tweetbot and Twitterific, and Twitter is being strangely enigmatic about precisely which rules it is now enforcing that has resulted in popular apps being cut off. It is unclear why some apps work and others do not. The lack of a communications department at the company since Elon Musk took over at the helm is doing nothing to help the situation.

In a rather vague tweet from the Twitter Dev account, the company said:

Speaking to Engadget, Craig Hockenberry of Twitterific said:

We haven't heard anything from Twitter. We have been respectful of their API rules, as published, for the past 16 years. We have no knowledge that these rules have changed recently or what those changes might be.

There is similar confusion from the developers behind Tweetbot who say that Twitter has communicated nothing about non-compliance with API rules.

Image credit: thenews2.com / depositphotos