Twitter not only blocks access to free APIs, but also disables logging in to external services using Twitter accounts.

by Esther Vargas

Twitter has announced that it will stop providing free APIs in February 2023, and is beginning to block access to free APIs of external services in order to move to paid APIs. Meanwhile, Mike McCue , CEO of social aggregation service Flipboard , reported that not only free APIs but also logins to external services using Twitter accounts are beginning to be blocked.

In addition to turning off their API, #Twitter has also inexplicably turned off access for users to sign in to #Flipboard and other platforms with Twitter SSO.
This is an unacceptable breach of trust between Twitter and their developers and users.

— Mike McCue (@mmccue) April 3, 2023

Mike McCue: 'In addition to turning off the…' - Flipboard
https://flipboard.social/@mike/110137461654913391

Twitter, which is working to improve profitability under Elon Musk CEO, has announced that it will abolish the free provision of the API that has been done so far and switch to a paid API. On March 30, we will limit the free plan to 1,500 tweets per month, and we will announce a new API plan that will cost $ 42,000 (about 5.5 million yen) per month for enterprise plans, and develop applications and services. We recommended that users migrate within 30 days.

Despite the fact that the 30-day transition period has not ended on April 4, multiple developers have reported that ``access to the free API of the application is blocked'', and Twitter is forced to move. It can be seen that it promotes

Will Twitter immediately start blocking access to the API to force developers to pay more than 5.5 million yen per month - GIGAZINE

Flipboard CEO McCue said on April 4 local time, 'Twitter is not only turning off the API, but also allowing users to use Twitter SSO ( Login with Twitter / Sign in with Twitter ) to connect to Flipboard and other apps. We have inexplicably turned off access to sign in to our platform.This is an unacceptable breach of trust in Twitter, developers and users.Twitter must explain why,' said Twitter. I reported that my logins to the services and apps I used were beginning to be blocked.

Since APIs are used to log in to external services using Twitter accounts, it has long been pointed out that API changes may interfere with the ability to log in with Twitter accounts. This report actually shows that API changes are affecting various functions as well.

Flipboard, operated by Mr. McCue, is a social aggregation service that collects feeds from various SNS and affiliated company websites and allows you to read them in your own magazine format. We were originally able to collect tweets from Twitter, but due to changes in the Twitter API, we are no longer able to read tweets, so we are expanding support for Mastodon .

Flipboard expands Mastodon support to its Android application | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/30/flipboard-expands-mastodon-support-to-its-android-application/

This case is also a hot topic on the social news site Hacker News.

Twitter has inexplicably turned off access to sign in with Twitter SSO | Hacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35434530

One user commented , 'I'm worried about this situation, so I prefer to register with a username, email address, and unique password, avoiding SSO using SNS accounts for personal services.'