Facebook has fallen out of favor in recent months due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other cases of data leaks of its users. After the testimony before senators, Facebook has been trying hard to repair the relationship with its users. In its latest post , the social network has announced a set of API restrictions, to “better protect user information.”
Restrictions range from strict review of apps before developers gain API access to limiting public content discovery APIs to Pages content.
Here are the limitations that developers will face:
Graph API Explorer – Developers will now need to use their access credentials to test queries in the Graph API explorer. They can no longer use the Graph API Explorer App with the Graph API Explorer.
Profile Expansion kit – Facebook will deprecate it on October 1st due to low usage. The Profile Expansion kit allows users to create profile images and videos through other apps and post them directly to Facebook.
Media Solution APIs – Public content discovery APIs will now be limited to Page content and public posts from certain verified profiles. Also starting August 1, Facebook will be deprecating the Topic Search, Topic Insights, and Topic Feed and Public Figure APIs due to low usage.
Facebook has also added an app review before developers can use the Marketing API which helps businesses create ads and manage campaigns.
There's good news for developers, too. Facebook has once again allowed them to search Facebook Pages through the Pages API. This will allow developers to more easily find pages that are related to each other.
The company is persistently reviewing its app ecosystem to "enable developers to create new experiences for users while protecting their data.".
While the company is adding more and more policies every day, such as new transparency rules for ads, it has yet to restore its users' trust.
