Elon Musk's Twitter May Have Deliberately Suspended Third-Party Apps Tweetbot And Twitterrific

Popular apps that can be used to scroll Twitter without going through the micro-blogging site's software, including Tweetbot and Twitterrific, have stopped working

Messages from Twitter's internal Slack channels suggest the company is aware of the outage. ( Image: Getty )

Popular apps that can be used to scroll Twitter without going through the micro-blogging site's software, including Tweetbot and Twitterrific, have stopped working, the media has reported.

According to a report by The Information, messages from the micro-blogging platform's internal Slack channels suggest the company is aware of the outage and likely the cause of it as well.

“Third-party app suspensions are intentional,” reads one message seen by The Information, in a channel the company’s engineers use to triage service disruptions.

It should be noted that Twitter has not operated a communications department since the takeover by tech billionaire Elon Musk and he started downsizing the company’s workforce. While Musk has also not tweeted about the outage, developers of Tweetbot and Twitterrific also have not heard anything from the micro-blogging company.

“We’re in the dark just as much as you are,” wrote Paul Haddad, the co-creator of Tweetbot in a recent Mastodon post.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk last week said that Twitter's "open source" algorithm will be revealed next month, as several people were unable to use third-party Twitter apps and faced issues with logging and accessing feeds. He said that Twitter will publish tweet recommendation code and make account/tweet status visible no later than next month.

"Transparency builds trust," the Twitter CEO had posted.

Meanwhile, Twitter has started a new verification programme for organisations, in yet another change to the micro-blogging company after tech billionaire Elon Musk's chaotic takeover. The company has now started accepting signups for organisations that will have to submit their names, websites as well as Twitter usernames to be considered for the waitlist.

Previously known as Twitter Blue for Business, organisations will also have to indicate their size and the expected number of affiliated accounts.