Twitter intentionally disabled third-party apps, company sources say

Popular third-party Twitter clients stopped working on Friday, and although their feeds have been periodically updated, this problem is still relevant. At the same time, Elon Musk’s company is still silent and does not comment on the situation in any way, and judging by the insiders, it seems that this is part of the new policy of the social network, and not just a failure.

According to the Information, citing the company’s internal messaging, a senior Twitter engineer told subordinates that “the suspension of third-party applications is intentional.” Other internal Slack communications seen by the media show that Twitter is working on “confirmed theses” for partners about the situation with third-party apps, but it’s unclear when they will be ready.

The exchange of information between Twitter employees that “access has been revoked from third-party customers” occurred on Friday morning, and it is unclear whether it is intended for the affected third-party developers or advertisers.

Since then, Twitter, including the usually active Elon Musk on the social network, has not announced the suspension of the API for third-party applications. The company does not have a PR team, while the developers of these clients remain in the dark and resort to their own guesses to explain the situation.

The media also noted that “most Twitter employees who worked on platforms for developers” were fired.

Revenue and advertising are a key factor in Twitter’s growth, and there are strong doubts that the social network under the leadership of Elon Musk will allow the recovery of third-party applications that it does not control. The same path was taken by Facebook at one time, consolidating users of its platform on its applications, thereby securing access to their data and advertising revenue.