When users set up a brand new WordPress-powered website, they’ve long been greeted by a standard introductory post simply titled “Hello World!”
But now it’s time for WordPress to say goodbye. In particular, farewell to Twitter.
WordPress has just become the latest major platform or organization to cut their Twitter integrations due to Elon Musk’s brand new high-priced API subscription plans.
Under Musk has Twitter switch off its free API offerings for developers looking to build Twitter-based apps or integrations. In its place, the company announced exorbitantly expensive paid enterprise subscription tiers starting at $42,000 per monthearlier this year.
According to a statement released by WordPress, the platform is removing Twitter from JetPack, an official plugin powered by WordPress and its parent company Automattic. Among the many security and marketing offerings, JetPack Social offers users the ability to automatically share content directly from their WordPress sites to a number of social media platforms.
WordPress is in its statement titled “The End of Twitter Auto-Sharing(opens in a new tab),” said the removal of Twitter from JetPack was due to the API price increase.
“Twitter has made a last-minute decision to dramatically change the terms and pricing of the Twitter API,” Automattic said in a statement. “We have attempted to work in good faith with Twitter to negotiate new terms, but we have been unable to reach an agreement. As a result, the Twitter connection on Jetpack Social will stop working and your blog posts will no longer be automatically shared on Twitter.”
The company is aware that this will only affect Twitter. Automattic states that WordPress users will still be able to use JetPack’s social features as before with platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. Additionally, the company announced that it plans to add Instagram and decentralized Twitter competitor Mastodon to JetPack Social in the “near future.”
With the removal of Twitter, WordPress joins the ranks of other major companies that have ditched Twitter in recent weeks. Microsoft recently removed Twitter from its Microsoft ads service and Xbox game console and intercoma popular customer service platform, has also removed Musk’s own platform from its tools.
The loss of WordPress is a major blow to Twitter. Here’s why.
The most popular is WordPress(opens in a new tab) Content management system on the Internet. Around 43 percent of the entire web is powered by WordPress. That’s hundreds of millions of websites, blogs, and ecommerce sites.
JetPack is a free security, performance, and marketing plugin powered by WordPress. There are also paid subscriptions for premium features. It’s unclear how many WordPress websites use JetPack. Mashable has reached out to Automattic for more information and will update this piece when we receive feedback.
However, JetPack is listed(opens in a new tab) in the official WordPress plugin directory, showing that there are more than 5 million active JetPack installs on WordPress-based websites. According to the directory, there are fewer than a dozen plugins with that many active installations. It should also be noted that the “5+ million” active installs label on JetPack is the highest numbered label that WordPress provides in the directory, so the actual number of active installs could likely be much higher.
Twitter’s API measures have confused developers big and small. A lot of indie developers have been forced to close their small Twitter-based apps last month, when Twitter suspended developers from their API platform in preparation for the move to paid enterprise plans. Popular Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Twitterific were also included cut from Twitter’s API without notice. Both are now closed.
Public service accounts fared no better. Public transport accounts like that MTAthat runs the New York City subway system, and public safety services like that National Weather Service, are affected by Twitter’s API changes. Both have announced that they will no longer be able to provide up-to-the-minute alerts on the platform.
