Reddit hacker’s demands include reversing API changes

Reddit recently fell victim to a phishing attack and the group responsible has now publicised their ransom demands.

The attack resulted in the exposure of internal documents, dashboards, code, and contracts. 

While the data has not been made public so far, the situation could change as ransomware gang BlackCat – also known as ALPHV – has claimed responsibility for the hack and threatened to release the data.

Unsurprisingly, BlackCat is demanding a...

19 June 2023 | API

Twitter won’t charge for API access for ‘critical purposes’ after all

Twitter has reversed course on its decision to shut off free access to its API, following widespread criticism from government and public service organisations.

The company has made numerous controversial decisions under Elon Musk’s leadership, but reducing users’ access to critical information was seen as dangerous and self-harming to the platform’s usefulness.

However, Twitter says it will now allow verified government and publicly-owned services to use the API...

3 May 2023 | API

Reddit to charge for API access over AI training concerns

Social news aggregation and discussion website Reddit will begin charging companies for access to its API.

Reddit says it’s making the decision over concerns about companies using the API to train large language models (LLMs).

The company says that its pricing will be divided into tiers to support companies of different sizes, with different usage limits and broader usage rights offered at each tier. However, the exact pricing details have not yet been...

19 April 2023 | API

Twitter announces charges for third-party developers

Less than a month after unceremoniously blocking third-party apps, Twitter has announced new charges for developers using its API.

In a tweet, Twitter announced that it will end free access to its API (both v2 and v1.1) on 9 February 2023.

The company says a paid basic tier will be available to replace the free access. More specific details are due to be announced next week.

https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1621026986784337922

It’s not the best time...

2 February 2023 | API

Twitter’s relationship with developers has fallen apart

The already strained relationship between Twitter and developers has now completely fallen apart.

Over the years, Twitter has made a series of decisions that damaged its relationship with developers.

In 2012, Twitter limited the number of active tokens an app can have—essentially putting a cap on how successful a third-party app can become. A number of apps kicked the bucket after that decision.

Increasingly strict rate limits on things such as retweets and...

16 January 2023 | API

EFF calls Facebook’s campaign against Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes ‘laughable’

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has called Facebook’s campaign against Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes “laughable”.

Facebook took out full-page newspaper ads last week in protest at Apple’s privacy changes in iOS 14:

https://twitter.com/DaveStangis/status/1339183289349918721

Apple’s new policies require apps which collect information about users to disclose what data they’re grabbing—and request specific permission to do...

22 December 2020 | Developer

Twitter launches new API, wants developers to build the good kind of bots

Twitter has released a new API which it wants developers to use to build helpful bots and more powerful third-party apps.

According to a post on the Twitter Developer Blog, the new API will no longer take “a one-size-fits-all approach” and will be “more flexible and scalable to fit your needs.”

What that means in practice is Twitter’s API now includes three access levels: the free basic level, elevated, and custom. Developers will no longer have to transfer...

13 August 2020 | API

Facebook releases Graph API v8.0, reminds devs that ‘Sharing for Devices’ will soon end

Facebook has released the eighth version of its Graph API, which requires some action from developers.

Graph API v8.0 brings several changes and deprecates various features. Among the most notable is that “Sharing for Devices” – a feature enabling users to share content from IoT devices – will no longer be available from November 2nd.

The following API versions are also being deprecated:

September 28, 2020 - v5.0 and v6.0 of the Marketing API will no...

5 August 2020 | API