Twitter suspends bad apps, changes rules for API access

143,000 apps suspended in Q2; developers must now register to use APIs

Twitter blocked 143,000 apps from using its API between April and June for violating its policies.

In a blog post Yoel Roth, API policy, and Rob Johnson, senior director product management at the social media firm, said the apps in question were used "to produce spam, manipulate conversations, or invade the privacy of people using Twitter".

Twitter's APIs have been redesigned, with a new app registration process that includes case reviews and policy compliance checks becoming mandatory for all new requests for access to Twitter's standard and premium APIs.

New developers will be required to provide detailed information about how they use or intend to use the APIs.

As of Tuesday, anyone wanting to use Twitter's APIs must apply for a developer account and access the APIs via the new portal developer.twitter.com. Existing users of the current portal apps.twitter.com will not need to go through the registration process yet, but this will be a requirement at a later date. The portal apps.twitter.com will be closed, although no timescales are given.

Along with tighter controls over the registration process, developers will be limited to 10 apps by default, and there will be a rate limit imposed for POST endpoints for those without privileged accounts. This change will be introduced on 10 September and "will apply to all requests to create Tweets, Retweets, likes, follows, or Direct Messages. This change represents a significant decrease in the existing rate of POST activity allowed from a single app by default," the blog post says.

The new default POST limits are as follows:

• Tweets & Retweets (combined): 300 per 3 hours;
• Likes: 1,000 per 24 hours;
• Follows: 1,000 per 24 hours;
• Direct Messages: 15,000 per 24 hours

Twitter's APIs are widely used by analytics firms, data scientists and marketers, so despite the company's attempts to ease the changes in gently, there is likely to be some disruption at least in the short term.

Twitter is also introducing new options for people to report suspect apps that may be violating the rules.

The firm has also been suspending accounts that violate its terms, although the criteria for suspension remain unclear with certain high-profile accounts apparently able to break the rules with impunity.

Twitter suspended 58 million accounts in the last quarter of 2017 and reportedly 70 million in the two months to July.