Twitter Confirms Third-Party Apps Like Tweetbot Were Intentionally Blocked

[gank41]

More like:

If you can’t monetise ‘em, block ‘em.

They could easily adjust the API 3rd Party Apps utilize and then force all Twitter clients to show the ads.
Boom. Problem solved.

No one is sure why

Now that's funny 😆 No one knows why accounts are being shadow banned? Really?? LOL It's about Politics & Money. Just like everything else.

Not for long if Elon has anything to say about it

There was an article published by The Information that includes a spreadsheet listing a number of iOS/macOS apps and Android apps, and some apps aren't listed at all, like Fenix. This TechCrunch article has a link to it, but I think the Information's page is paywalled. There was a spreadsheet you could open and see for yourself, I think at the initial time of posting, someone included it in the post due to the Paywall.. It's out there on the internet somewhere, though.
At any rate, the technical way apps were being blocked was by how many tokens/logins were being acquired thru the app. If it was over 100,000 users, the app was on the list. Goes to show that not a lot of folks use Fenix. But it's working for me!

 

[Killbynumbers]

Twitter is dead.

Long live Mastodon.

Nah. If Twitter is gone, I won't replace it. Had some fun on Twitter since 2007 I honestly don't need to replace it.

 

[NogbadTheBad]

Just deleted my account

 

[BellSystem]

Now all they have to do is block the native client and we’ll be all set.

 

[Jankie]

I think you need to do that math again.

The two threads that are just the announcements of new Mac Minis and Macbooks are 476 comments total.
All the threads today that are only related to the just-announced new Minis and Macbooks (announcements, availability, battery life, RAM, etc.) have 1,178 comments total.
This thread about Twitter (including the one I'm writing now) has 214 comments.

EDIT: Updated to 214 from 212.

…moving goalposts 🙄. You know what I said is technically correct. I think you jumped the snark.

 

[larrylaffer]

He's Henry 'Remember how bad he was' Ford with a sprinkling of Elizabeth Holmes.

The only part of Henry Ford he even closely resembles is all the bad Henry Ford stuff.

 

[SparkyM]

Tried it on the Mac. Launched the app. Clicked the "Sign In" button. Nothing happens. Maybe they've broken Fenix, too?

Same here. Its a bit odd. The IOS version works great (I've been using it during the recent 'third-party' issue and its been a very pleasant discovery in the absence of Tweetbot. But my experience with the Mac version has been the same as yours...never gets to the Sign In screen.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Lets face it, if we were Elon and had to make money out of Twitter we would have had to do the same thing.

Sure.

But Elon's Twitter is all about free speech. And he (in)famously stated (pre-takeover) that he "doesn't care about the economics" and just wants to do good stuff for humanity.

Seems like this isn't just a compromise with his initial plans but a version of Twitter that ends up being less accessible and much less like the "de facto public town square" than pre-Musk Twitter was.

-pre-Musk Twitter allowed for third-party apps to access Twitter despite blocking ads. Now that the biggest of these apps are blocked, all the users who only want the third-party ad-free UIs that these apps offer are essentially gone.

A big chunk of Twitter's growth and high engagement has been thanks to third-party clients like Tweetbot and many users are so accustomed to using these that they won't use Twitter without them.

-Why on Earth just flat out block them when Twitter easily could have worked together with these apps to show ads, or let them remain ad-free if users pay a monthly fee to go ad-free?

 

[macsplusmacs]

Sure.

But Elon's Twitter is all about free speech. And he (in)famously stated (pre-takeover) that he "doesn't care about the economics" and just wants to do good stuff for humanity.

Seems like this isn't just a compromise with his initial plans but a version of Twitter that ends up being less accessible and much less like the "de facto public town square" than pre-Musk Twitter was.

-pre-Musk Twitter allowed for third-party apps to access Twitter despite blocking ads. Now that the biggest of these apps are blocked, all the users who only want the third-party ad-free UIs that these apps offer are essentially gone.

A big chunk of Twitter's growth and high engagement has been thanks to third-party clients like Tweetbot and many users are so accustomed to using these that they won't use Twitter without them.

-Why on Earth just flat out block them when Twitter easily could have worked together with these apps to show ads, or let them remain ad-free if users pay a monthly fee to go ad-free?

It's the cowardice of the man.

He just dictated in the dead of the night, no APIs for you.

No explanation.

No public comment.

Just, cowardice and an utter disrespect for third party developers.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Never base your livelihood on someone else's company.

Yes, you are right: Twitter doesn't need these third-party apps and their users as much as they need Twitter. But Twitter greatly benefits from these apps and their users' engagement with Twitter.

Twitter could easily have reached out and made deals with these apps that then could switch their users over to ad-supported or paid (partially or completely) ad-free versions of their apps.

Just shutting them down with no warning only serves to anger devs and users of these apps. It doesn't help Twitter get more eyeballs on ads.

What's the opposite of "makin' money moves"? This is that.

 

[MacBH928]

In Twitter's defense , how do they profit from 3rd party clients? their main source of income is ads

 

[StevenB14]

In Twitter's defense , how do they profit from 3rd party clients? their main source of income is ads

Twitter chose not to put ads in the API. They charge the 3rd party clients for access to the API and they could have injected ads into the API as well. They have the means to profit from it, but chose not to.

 

[MisterSavage]

I like Mastodon, but it’s too geeky and complex to gain mass appeal.

I think there's a chance for that. I agree initial setup process is confusing and clunky but once you get past that to me my timeline honestly feels like I'm using Twitter most of the time. Once some bigger players like Mozilla set up their own instances maybe that will make it more mass market appeal.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

…moving goalposts 🙄. You know what I said is technically correct. I think you jumped the snark.

And I think you may need to reexamine what "technically correct" means since if all you do is look at the numbers, your statement falls apart. You literally said:

Sad that on a day Apple releases updated hardware the Twitter article gets the most comments. 😞

And I showed you that the numbers of comments say the opposite - more comments on new hardware than Twitter threads. I don't understand at all how that is either "technically correct" nor "moving the goalposts." But you do you!

 

[Jumpthesnark]

All the 3rd party twitter apps should (and some are) refocus on making Mastodon user-friendly and simple for the average user.

Great idea. Everything I hear about Mastodon is that it's hard to use, and successful social media needs to be easy and conversational.

 

[deckard666]

Poor guy can't catch break either as he was desperate to move his Tesla court case -

Judge rejects Elon Musk’s request to move his upcoming securities fraud trial to Texas

The judge expressed confidence that an impartial jury could be chosen.

www.theverge.com

This wont go well for him either - hung by his own petard there I feel - those tweets are going to cost you Elon !

 

[macsplusmacs]

Poor guy can't catch break either as he was desperate to move his Tesla court case -

Judge rejects Elon Musk’s request to move his upcoming securities fraud trial to Texas

The judge expressed confidence that an impartial jury could be chosen.

www.theverge.com

This wont go well for him either - hung by his own petard there I feel - those tweets are going to cost you Elon !

And with so many laid off Twitter people. And since the case will be heard in SF.

Laid off Twitter people on Jury!

 

[StevenB14]

I think there's a chance for that. I agree initial setup process is confusing and clunky but once you get past that to me my timeline honestly feels like I'm using Twitter most of the time. Once some bigger players like Mozilla set up their own instances maybe that will make it more mass market appeal.

If Twitter goes under, I wonder if the likes of the NFL, NBA, MLB, ESPN and so on will setup their own servers and their writers etc will migrate to there?

I’m just coming at this from a sports view as the sport stuff is still really limited on Mastodon. Will certainly be interesting to see how this all plays out and what the social media landscape looks like in the coming weeks/months/years.

 

[Evil Dan]

Elon is a Coward....

Well it begins with a C but rhymes with runt.

 

[Jankie]

And I think you may need to reexamine what "technically correct" means since if all you do is look at the numbers, your statement falls apart. You literally said:

And I showed you that the numbers of comments say the opposite - more comments on new hardware than Twitter threads. I don't understand at all how that is either "technically correct" nor "moving the goalposts." But you do you!

Just keep on jumping.

 

[MisterSavage]

If Twitter goes under, I wonder if the likes of the NFL, NBA, MLB, ESPN and so on will setup their own servers and their writers etc will migrate to there?

I’m just coming at this from a sports view as the sport stuff is still really limited on Mastodon. Will certainly be interesting to see how this all plays out and what the social media landscape looks like in the coming weeks/months/years.

I've heard that also about sports also (I'm not a fan so I don't know). For something with breaking news like a weather hazard I would still check Twitter for updates.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Just keep on jumping.

Sounds like a very cogent reply. Have a good day.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I've heard that also about sports also (I'm not a fan so I don't know). For something with breaking news like a weather hazard I would still check Twitter for updates.

Another worry is that many official government outlets have been using Twitter over the past decade or so. If the bird app reaches a point of irrelevance, what will happen then? During tornadoes, blizzards, floods, hurricanes, mass shootings, missing people, etc., Twitter has been a way that official agencies have rapidly made public announcements & alerts. If Twitter dwindles in users enough, or if it "breaks," I wonder if that's all just going to move to FB.

 

[Canyda]

Another worry is that many official government outlets have been using Twitter over the past decade or so. If the bird app reaches a point of irrelevance, what will happen then? During tornadoes, blizzards, floods, hurricanes, mass shootings, missing people, etc., Twitter has been a way that official agencies have rapidly made public announcements & alerts. If Twitter dwindles in users enough, or if it "breaks," I wonder if that's all just going to move to FB.

All of those organizations have web pages where they can post real-time updates, like they did before Twitter existed.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

All of those organizations have web pages where they can post real-time updates, like they did before Twitter existed.

Yes, they do, but that's hardly a solution. People aren't going to make dozens of bookmarks and then go through them all the time to check for updates from highway patrol, weather services, police, fire, sheriff's, city, county, school districts, lifeguards, search & rescue, Coast Guard, airports, water management districts, etc. Scroll through Twitter and you can see all of that.

An 18-wheeler jackknifed on the Golden Gate Bridge during storms last weekend. A CHP officer posted an alert to Twitter while standing there. Do you expect that officer to update web pages at a time like that?

Do you expect every agency and business to have the budget for rewriting the code on their website, and redesigning the site, to provide for push notifications and then to provide the staffing to make sure it's updated 24/7? Because that speed is what Twitter allows.

So yes they have web pages. That's not the answer to my concern.