Our application got restricted due to an end user using too many @mentions - we can't understand why the app was restricted though

BrDevTeam · 2021-06-21T07:41:14.635Z

We are a software developer and one of our applications is used to post tweets on behalf of users. This has worked fine for 3 or 4 years, but last week our application was suddenly restricted, so all our end users could not use it to post messages.

We reached out to twitter and were told that it was due to users spamming by posting too many messages with unsolicited @mentions in - we asked for clarification though, because surely it should be the end user being blocked not the application?

We received a generic reply saying that we had to let them know what steps we would take to resolve this, so we asked again why the application was blocked, not the user account, but have not had a response.

We are using the PIN based oauth method to get an access_token for the end user’s account so we can post the messages.

Does anyone have any clarity as to why the APPLICATION was restricted? This seems odd to me - like blocking tweetdeck from sending any messages for anyone, just because one or more end users abused it.

We’re very keen to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and want to make sure we’re upholding the twitter rules, but without understanding the logic, thats hard to do.

Thanks,

hamalrasheedi1 · 2021-06-29T01:23:12.390Z

@hamalrasheedi1

antsstyle · 2021-06-29T02:53:48.942Z

While I can’t speak for official policy or such like:

I would assume that allowing your users to send unsolicited mentions through an app would be likely to cause that. Even though they’re being done via access token, the application itself is still responsible for ensuring that users don’t perform what the rules see as “aggressive or spammy” behaviour (per the Automation Rules).

It’s different if a user is doing that through the Twitter web client, as there it’s demonstrable they are doing it manually and thus viewing other tweets etc. In an application, a status is just an API call - there’s no way to easily distinguish between an application being misused and (for example) a malicious application.

andypiper · 2021-06-29T13:37:59.121Z

The developer policy states:

It is your responsibility to monitor the use of your service and to design your service to prevent violations of Twitter policy by people who use it. Failure to do so may result in suspension or termination of your API and Twitter Content access.

Unsolicited mentions are a violation of policy, so you should design your system to avoid users responding to Tweets they are not mentioned in, and educate your users that this is against Twitter’s policies.

You can read more about this policy here.

BrDevTeam · 2021-06-29T14:10:53.650Z

With our next release, we’ll be removing the ability for users to mention other twitter accounts from pre-scheduled posts as this will resolve this going forward, but of course will reduce social interaction slightly.

In situations such as the above, is Twitter ALSO suspending the accounts of the users that have sent the messages themselves or just the 3rd party developer who’s software they used?

For example, if @SomeoneOrOther uses our software to send too many tweets that breach the policy, is the @SomeoneOrOther account suspended as it’s their account that is actually being used to send the tweets?

andypiper · 2021-06-29T15:11:55.610Z

We’re not able to comment on user accounts, suspensions etc on the developer forums. Our automated systems have a range of ways to identify and take action on these kinds of situations.

system · 2021-07-13T15:12:14.270Z

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