Thread by @Ke_Ga

1/ Sadly Twitter cut off our API access with no warning (well technically there was 1 minute between when they sent the email and deactivating our API access) last Thursday morning.

status.manageflitter.com for more on the backstory.

Some thoughts & updates follow.

https://twitter.com/ManageFlitter/status/1092575498239062016

2/ Twitter also on Saturday removed API access with no warning for all of our staging & testing environments. They also removed API access for a new product we were working on @ManageSocial .

3/ Of course products like Twitter can change their TOS, or can change requirements for ecosystem partners. We always support ongoing efforts to improve Twitter and the Twitter APIs.

4/ But the human story behind all of this is being missed by @jack & team Twitter.

5/ I have personally reached out to many people at Team Twitter. I have had zero response except from 1 person in S Francisco saying they can't help as they aren't on policy team. On Fri one person at Twitter AU said that they will try investigate - no response yet.

6/ @TwitterComms claim we received prior notifications for violating API rules.

https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1091071407209906183

- we hadn't received any notifications about any violations prior to deactivations.

7/ In 2017 Twitter requested that we make some feature changes which we complied with.

manageflitter.com/blog/managefli…

8/ That was the most recent time Twitter requested feature changes from us. The only further communication from Twitter was in 2018 when Twitter approved our elevated API access.

9/ I find that the way this has been handled by Twitter incredibly surprising.

Consider:

2015, @jack declaring Twitter is resetting the relationship with developers:
venturebeat.com/2015/10/21/twi…

10/ @robjohnson declaring in 2018

https://twitter.com/robjohnson/status/1030122326480715777

"We love that developers build experiences on our APIs to push our service and technology forward. We deeply respect the time, energy, and passion they’ve put into building amazing things using Twitter"

11/ A deep respect implies that Twitter would engage in dialogue with us after working with us as a partner for 9 years. @robjohnson 's words are not backed up by any nominal respectful behaviour towards ManageFlitter.

12/ @jack wanting to reset relationships with developers - @jack is on record as saying "That’s what today represents. We want to make sure that we have an open, honest, and transparent relationship with developers.”

13/ ManageFlitter, a 9 year old Twitter product developer has received none of this openness, honesty, and transparency from Twitter that @jack spoke about.

14/ We aren't a bunch of weekend technical dabblers. 4 million people have used our service to optimise their Twitter experience. We help at least 30 000 Twitter users per month.

15/ As an aside, there are at least 3 products similar to ours that continue to operate. So if Twitter claims ManageFlitter is enabling SPAM (which we believe we are not).

We ask the following questions:

12/

i) Why are there still other products out there with similar functionality to ManageFlitter operating?

ii) Why did Twitter approve the application for ManageFlitter's elevated POST access in 2018 (with no feature change requests from Twitter) ?

13/

iii) Why does Twitter refuse to talk with us?

iii) Why does Twitter not ask for ManageFlitter to change features? We have full control of our features and can do anything Twitter wishes. For example we can remove follow functionality and introduce limits.

14/

Again I emphasise, platforms like Twitter are 100% entitled to change policies that developers in the ecosystem must comply with. But developers should be given an opportunity to evolve their products accordingly.

15/

However, is this the type of commercial environment we wish to enable? Where companies that build products on these big powerful services are treated with disdain, unreasonableness and disrespect?

16/ Twitter was born out of a desire to change the world for the better. The whole of Silicon Valley & San Francisco is driven by purpose and enabling change.

17/

Surely the disrespectful way Twitter are treating long standing API partners such as ourselves, goes against all of this. It also goes against as mentioned, above, what @jack & @robjohnson at Twitter indicated is their intended approach of respect, honesty & fairness.

18/ What we are seeking, on behalf of our users, our team, & as a company that has worked very hard to build a great product, is honest dialogue with team Twitter.

19/ After 9 years of working with Twitter, we feel that this is the minimum that our users and our team deserve.

20/ We love Twitter, be believe in Twitter as a force good in the world. It was within this spirit that ManageFlitter was created. We remain confident that through dialogue we can forge a positive way forward with Twitter on behalf of our users.

21/ I will provide any further updates here as they happen.

Thanks again to all for the ongoing support.

22/ As an aside, Twitter themselves invited us to write for own of their own blogs in 2018.

business.twitter.com/en/blog/q_a_-h…