“The greatest bone of contention for third party Twitter developers is that Twitter has been seen to be underhanded in its communication and relaying of the facts.”

Many people use Twitter in order to help them promote their website and social media optimisation programs (effective ones, anyway) almost always include some Twitter work. Some Tweeters even make a direct income stream through the site by displaying third party ads in and around their own timeline; at least one aspect of this has changed, as reported by Mashable.

Third party applications that inject sponsored Tweets into the user timeline have been outlawed in the latest amendment to Twitter’s Terms of Service.

For the end user this will mean greater clarity when attempting to trawl through somebody’s timeline. Sponsored ads can and sometimes do get in the way of being able to accurately and easily follow a person’s Tweets. While ads will still appear they will be limited to those created by Twitter’s own Promoted Tweets program or to any ads displayed around the timeline.

Users that monetise their Twitter network, by displaying third party sponsored ads will effectively have to move over to using the Twitter program or simply stop displaying sponsored Tweets.

Developers are without doubt the hardest hit and not least those that have themselves spent money and time working with the Twitter API in order to create the platform and network to deliver these ads. The greatest bone of contention for third party Twitter developers, even those creating applications unrelated to sponsored ads, is that Twitter has been seen to be underhanded in its communication and relaying of the facts.

If this announcement affects you in any way then the first thing you need to be aware of is that the Terms of Service have been altered and a cease and decist notice for such third party applications.