Home
Social networking
Social networking News
Twitter Blocks API Access to Top Paid Apps That Promise More Followers

Twitter Blocks API Access to Top Paid Apps That Promise More Followers

By Harpreet Singh | Updated: 1 February 2019 12:12 IST

Twitter has revoked the API access to three popular services yesterday

Highlights

Twitter has banned three popular services that violated its API terms
These paid apps charged users to help them grow their follower count
Developers can reapply for a new developer account and submit new apps

Twitter has started cracking down on services that violate its API rules by engaging in a large volume of follow and unfollow requests. The social networking giant is also coming down hard on services that have been using its API to send automated direct messages. These apps generally let users follow a large number of users in the hope that they'll follow them back, and then unfollow those who don't. All these apps charge money from their users.

On Thursday, Twitter had banned ManagerFlitter, Statusbew, and Crowdfire, as spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. These three apps have been charging users to help grow their accounts, violating Twitter's API rules in the process.

According to Twitter's API rules, any sort of aggressive following and unfollowing of Twitter accounts is prohibited. By exploiting Twitter's platform, these services have been ruining the user experience for many other users. As a social platform, Twitter works perfectly well if you follow the right kind of people and it works the same the other way around as well.

ManageFlitter charges users $12 to $49 (roughly Rs. 830 to Rs. 3,400) per month, promising them an easy way to increase their followers. The service starts following a large number of accounts from a user's profile and waits for those users to follow the user back. After a few days, if those users haven't followed back, the service unfollows them in bulk.

Another similar service that has been banned includes Crowdfire. The service offers a bunch of tools for Twitter users and charges users up to $75 (roughly Rs. 5,200) per month. Crowdfire's founder and CEO, Nischal Shetty tweeted his response and claimed Twitter had approved their app back in September 2017. In September 2018 the company's app had received elevated API access. He further added that they received a suspension notice on January 31, 2019, without any prior notice.

In a response to TechCrunch, Twitter said it will still allow these companies to apply for a new developer account and submit a 'compliant app' for approval again. The existing apps will still remain suspended though.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Twitter

Harpreet Singh

Email Harpreet

Harpreet is the community manager at Gadgets 360. He loves all things tech, and can be found hunting for good deals when he is not shopping online. He has written about deals and e-commerce in India for many years, as well as covering social media and breaking technology news. More

Amazon Asks Partners to Stop Using Amazon Exclusives Branding as New E-Commerce Rules Take Effect

Twitter Blocks API Access to Top Paid Apps That Promise More Followers

Related Stories