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Instagram Suddenly Chokes Off Developers As Facebook Chases Privacy (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the parental-guidance dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Without warning, Instagram has broken many of the unofficial apps built on its platform. This weekend it surprised developers with a massive reduction in how much data they can pull from the Instagram API, shrinking the API limit from 5,000 to 200 calls per user per hour. Apps that help people figure out if their followers follow them back or interact with them, analyze their audiences or find relevant hashtags are now quickly running into their API limits, leading to broken functionality and pissed off users. Two sources confirmed the new limits to TechCrunch, and developers are complaining about the situation on StackOverflow. In a puzzling move, Instagram is refusing to comment on what's happening while its developer rate limits documentation site 404s. All it would confirm is that Instagram has stopped accepting submissions of new apps, just as Facebook announced it would last week following backlash over Cambridge Analytica. Developers tell me they feel left in the dark and angry that the change wasn't scheduled or even officially announced, preventing them from rebuilding their apps to require fewer API calls.

5 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The users that game the algorithm to grow a follower count instead of attracting followers organically are pissed off.

    No, sorry, I have to try again, I think I started laughing there.

  2. Do My Followers Follow Me? by Kunedog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apps that help people figure out if their followers follow them

    Nothing of value of was lost.

    1. Re:Do My Followers Follow Me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is useful information due to the Follow/Unfollow habit of many follower seeking users. Knowing this info influenced my decision to quit Instagram - its fakeness and competition driven nature left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm a photographer, not a social media hound.

  3. If you build your business on someone else's API by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you build your business on someone else's API, you're gonna have a bad day (when the API owners figure out how you're making money and decide to make it themselves). That's why "participating in an application marketplace" is usually a suckers bet unless that marketplace is OS wide (like Google Play, iTunes, (does Microsoft have a store up yet?), etc.)

  4. Re:It's a mad dash to "privacy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    working for the Trump campaign

    This is what amuses me to no end. Suddenly all the journalists care about privacy? No, they don't give a shit about that. This is all just because they have such a hate boner for Trump. When Obama's campaign harvested data off Facebook it was just modern, "groundbreaking" campaigning, nothing to see here.