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

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.

Comments

And...

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

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

Nothing of value was lost on the platform...

These are features that Instagram should have been providing already instead of leading to a data broker-friendly situation.

Re:Fuckerberg is all about the shekels

[Anonymous Coward]

200 calls per user per hour

Should be 200 per year. 200 per hour is absurd.

Apps that help people figure out if their followers follow them back or interact with them, analyze their audiences or find relevant hashtags

Stupidity at an unprecidented level.