Reevaluating the Twitter / X API
A month ago I wondered out loud if it was time to add Twitter cross-posting back to Micro.blog. After a lot of thought and feedback from users, I think yes. The goal has always been to help people publish on their own domain first, regardless of where they also choose to share their posts.
While I hoped X would fade away, it hasn’t, and from an IndieWeb perspective there isn’t a major difference between many of the closed silos: X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads. Once you move beyond open protocols, every major social platform asks users to trust how it uses their data and the decisions of the company’s leadership.
The fediverse support in Threads hasn’t panned out the way we had hoped either. I don’t think Meta’s heart is in it. Their posting API is still private and requires jumping through hoops for approval. Yet we still support it. The web is better off with even partial ActivityPub support in Threads, and connecting to Threads via POSSE, rather than nothing.
I’m under no illusion that X is going to open their API. They have recently added MCP, which is interesting, but also not very relevant to Micro.blog.
In reevaluating support for X, there are two competing principles:
- We support open APIs and protocols, so why give attention to a closed silo? X’s leadership is also erratic and divisive.
- We want more people to start posting to their own blog. Making it easier to cross-post from blog to closed silo actually expands indie blogging.
If there’s a conflict in principles, we should do what helps people blog. We can’t control whether X will succeed or fail, just as the principled statement I made when I quit Twitter in 2012 made little difference. Micro.blog doesn’t “support” Elon Musk any more than we support Mark Zuckerberg. We support users who want to blog and reach an audience on other platforms.
Finally, there is the cost. X’s API is no longer free. It is more affordable now, though, and reasonable for us to support with a Micro.blog Premium $10 subscription. It won’t be available at the standard $5 subscription.
I’m planning to re-enable X support this week. I don’t love doing it, but on balance it seems right to make people’s blogs even more useful.
