Twitter announced this week that it removed more than 140,000 apps from the platform between April and May, many of which violated its API key terms of service, exceeding usage limits by a wide margin. “We do not condone misuse of the API to send spam or invade our users’ privacy,” it said.
The social network has been criticized many times in the past for the huge number of bot accounts it maintains. Very often, the actions of these bot accounts, such as likes, follows or tweets, are performed on a massive scale using each account's API.
But the termination of the accounts was not accidental. Twitter is taking security measures after seeing the turn of events after the scandal, also known as Cambridge Analytica.
Twitter makes major changes to its API
But in addition to the banning of 143,000 apps, the use of the API that each user can make is now significantly limited. Starting today, according to the company, all accounts will have to go through a verification process, and developers will have to register more information, both about themselves and about the reasons for which they will use the platform's API.
From September 10, the new limits will be applied, which are as follows:
Tweets & Retweets (combined): 300 per 3 hours
Likes: 1000 per 24 hours
Follows: 1000 per 24 hours
Direct Messages: 15,000 per 24 hours
Finally, it is important to mention that in the event that a developer provides valid evidence that he or she needs higher limits for the requests he or she can send, Twitter will extend the limits of his or her account.
This is an effort by the platform to reduce spam accounts, which a few days ago, blocked 70 million fake accounts.
