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Twitter Cracks Down on API Abuse, Will Charge B2B Developers (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the for-the-record dept.

To prevent its own Cambridge Analytica moment and make sure it's getting paid for its data, Twitter said today it will audit developers that use its APIs. From a report: Starting June 19th, Twitter will require developers of any app that calls recent tweets from or mentions a user more than 100,000 times per day to submit their app for review. If a developer proves they have a legitimate consumer use case, like running a third-party Twitter client or doing research, they'll be granted free access to the API at the same rate they have today. If they primarily use the data to serve business customers as a B2B tool, like for customer service or social media monitoring, they'll have to pay to enter a commercial licensing agreement with Twitter with a custom price based on usage. Twitter refused to even specify the range those prices fall into, which won't win it any extra trust.

Developers found to be breaking Twitter's policies will be booted from the platform, while those that don't submit for review will be capped at 100,000 requests per day for the user timeline and mentions APIs. Twitter says it suspended 162,000 apps in the second half of 2018, showing it's willing to play hardball with developers that endanger its ecosystem.

10 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. API abuse? by Virtucon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How can you call any use of an API that you published as abuse? If you do, you're doing it wrong.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    1. Re:API abuse? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      How can you call any use of an API that you published as abuse?

      By violating the intention of the publication of the API. The intention here was to enable to user applications to post to and read Twitter. Abuse would be harvesting all of the information posted to Twitter.

      If you do, you're doing it wrong.

      Poppycock! Anyone can abuse an interface. Take for a second to consider HTTP. With HTTP if you have millions of computers request pages repeatedly from a single server while discarding the result you can deny other people the ability to access the page as well as drive up the cost of hosting the page.

      What is the proper solution in the case of HTTP? Only serve content to known and trusted computers that request it? That solution subverts the entire purpose of the Internet.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    2. Re:API abuse? by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Ever hear of throttling? If you write an API to consume bulk data like this unintentionally or you allow API consumers to beat the shit out of your service layer than then change the API or your infrastructure! If you publish an API that circumvents your policies then you're a dipshit for publishing it in the first place or your stakeholder alignment is fucked.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    3. Re:API abuse? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Ever hear of throttling?

      Isn't that exactly what this is?

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:API abuse? by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Throttling and Abuse has to be a paramount concern in public APIs, it needs to be mitigated and thought out from the beginning. Shit I see it enough in enterprise APIs and it's much worse.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  2. Break up Twitter by WCMI92 · · Score: 1

    They have got to be broken up along with Google and Facebook.

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    Corporatism != Free Market
  3. Let me fix that headline for ya... by fortythirteen · · Score: 1

    Google to charge B2B developers for API access, uses Cambridge Analytica as an excuse

    1. Re:Let me fix that headline for ya... by Ksevio · · Score: 1

      1. Twitter, not Google.
      2. TechCrunch added the part about Cambridge Analytica - Twitter mainly said they want more money and they don't want other companies making money off their data without paying for it

  4. So not fixing Nazis or adding Edit by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Riight ...

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  5. Re:"B2B?" by jtmach · · Score: 1

    Business to Business. So some company scraping the data to sell to another company. Twitter would rather sell direct to the end user.