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

Twitter Blocks API Access to Top Paid Apps That Promise More Followers 143y49

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

Twitter has revoked the API access to three popular services yesterday 4x6541

Highlights

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

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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 s follow a large number of s in the hope that they'll follow them back, and then unfollow those who don't. All these apps charge money from their s.

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

According to Twitter's API rules, any sort of aggressive following and unfollowing of Twitter s is prohibited. By exploiting Twitter's platform, these services have been ruining the experience for many other s. 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 s $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 s from a 's profile and waits for those s to follow the back. After a few days, if those s 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 s and charges s 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 and submit a 'compliant app' for approval again. The existing apps will still remain suspended though.

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Harpreet Singh

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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

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Twitter Blocks API Access to Top Paid Apps That Promise More Followers 143y49

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