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.

Comments

Re:Let the whining begin!

[CaptSlaq]

Cue the alt-right cries of censorship...

Cue the droning on of $FAVORED_PARTY saying $UNFAVORED_PARTY crying about $PERCEIVED_SLIGHT.

What developers?

[SuperKendall]

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.