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Twitter Updates Developer Rules in the Wake of Bot Crackdown (mashable.com)

Twitter is getting serious about its bot problem. From a report: Hours after a massive bot purge that prompted the #TwitterLockOut hashtag to trend, the company is announcing new rules for developers meant to prevent bots from using third-party apps to spread spam. According to the new rules, developers that use Twitter's API will no longer be able to let users: Simultaneously post identical or substantially similar content to multiple accounts. Simultaneously perform actions such as Likes, Retweets, or follows from multiple accounts Use of any form of automation (including scheduling) to post identical or substantially similar content, or to perform actions such as Likes or Retweets, across many accounts that have authorized your app (whether or not you created or directly control those accounts) is not permitted.

2 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. What developers? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems like they could have just called and let the handful of people with grandfathered unlimited Twitter API access know this.

    Everyone else gets limited Oath keys so they can't support many Twitter users at once anyway, which would seem to limit bot use...

    I really doubt bots are coming in through the API, they are coming in via the website by bots pretending to be a browser.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. Re:Let the whining begin! by p4nther2004 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    No...the funny part is that the party of "free enterprise" is constantly complaining that PERCEIVED_SLIGHT="they want to run their company their way".