Twitter broke in several places this morning, likely due to Twitter’s own API. Slow load times, broken links, and services like TweetDeck went down on Monday, displaying an error related to Twitter’s API. This is not the first hurdle Twitter has seen due to its API under the new leadership of Elon Musk.
When using a link on Twitter or accessing a service like TweetDeck, you would see this message: “{“errors”:[{“message”:”Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api for more information”,”code”:467}]}” That’s not too helpful — going to the website address in the error would take you to a page with the same error.
The issue seemed related to Twitter’s API, which touches several services and features on Twitter, such as images and links. The Twitter developer website went down, and both the Twitter Dev and Twitter API accounts were silent when the service broke.
Links rendered on Twitter, but attempting to click the link would block your connection and display the error above. Images had trouble, as well, many of which refused to load both in preview and when you expand the image.
It seems the issue was related to Twitter’s switch to a paid API. The company announced in early February that it would switch to a paid API service, resulting in many third-party apps like Twitterific being shut down. Now, it seems Twitter itself is running into issues related to its paid API system.
Reporter Aidan Moher speculates that links and images were broken due to Twitter’s data tracking. When using a link out of Twitter, the website captures data about where you’re going, which is sent through the Twitter API. That service, according to Moher, seems to have lost API access due to the switch to Twitter’s new paid system.
Twitter Support said that “some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected” shortly after the website starting breaking. The issue, according to the account, is the result of “an internal change that had some unintended consequences.” The team followed up about an hour later that service had been restored.
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