When Michael Sippey, group product manager at Twitter, made the announcement today that Twitter would begin a tighter enforcement of its “Developer Rules of the Road,” such as the rule that developers should not use Twitter APIs to “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience,” it wasn’t clear exactly what he meant. Now, LinkedIn has revealed just how broadly Twitter is now interpreting its rules by stating that LinkedIn members will no longer be able to have tweets displayed on LinkedIn.
Sippey’s post to the Twitter Developers blog highlighted the fact that Twitter wants users to experience its platform in a consistent way, and that the new tools it is rolling out will make it necessary for the company to strictly enforce its developer rules. From the post:
…we’ve already begun to more thoroughly enforce our Developer Rules of the Road with partners, for example with branding, and in the coming weeks, we will be introducing stricter guidelines around how the Twitter API is used.
We’re building tools for publishers and investing more and more in our own apps to ensure that you have a great experience everywhere you experience Twitter, no matter what device you’re using. You need to be able to see expanded Tweets and other features that make Twitter more engaging and easier to use. These are the features that bring people closer to the things they care about. These are the features that make Twitter Twitter. We’re looking forward to working with you to make Twitter even better.
Unfortunately for LinkedIn users, this means they will have to go without tweets on LinkedIn. For several years, LinkedIn members have been able to sync their LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, allowing them to pull tweets into their LinkedIn stream or push LinkedIn updates to Twitter. LinkedInhas also released an official blog post today, which details the change and states that, as of today, tweets will no loger be displayed on LinkedIn. From the LinkedIn blog post:
If you had previously synced your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and selected the option to share Tweets on LinkedIn, those Tweets generated from Twitter will no longer appear on LinkedIn. There will be no other changes to your LinkedIn experience.
The post went on to emphasize that users will still be able to share LinkedIn content to Twitter. Checking the Twitter box when posting a LinkedIn update will continue to push the content straight to Twitter.