Block Party says its anti-harassment tool for Twitter is going on an indefinite hiatus starting May 31 due to Twitter API changes, and announces Privacy Party
Now that Twitter's API access is locked behind a tall paywall, long beloved third-party apps are shutting down.
The May 31 hiatus closes the loop on a pattern stretching back years: in 2018 Twitter already ended legacy API support that broke apps like Tweetbot after repeated delays and notice promises, so today's paywall reads as acceleration rather than departure. Block Party's answer is to stop depending on Twitter entirely, launching Privacy Party as a new offering.
First-order effects
Block Party's existing users lose their harassment-filtering service for Twitter starting May 31, with no stated return date.
Block Party redirects its product effort from a single-platform safety tool to Privacy Party, reducing its exposure to one platform's developer policies.
Second-order effects
Every remaining third-party Twitter safety and moderation tool faces the same fork — pay the new API rates or follow Block Party into hiatus — concentrating what little outside safety tooling survives behind Twitter's own paywall.
Twitter's Toolbox experiment, which once legitimized third-party moderation apps by surfacing them in-product, now points users toward tools that may no longer function, undercutting trust in any future official recommendations.
Third-order effects
If platform owners keep converting open APIs into paid, restricted access, independent safety tooling migrates from per-platform integrations to platform-agnostic products like Privacy Party — leaving harassment protection on any given network hostage to that network's commercial priorities.
The long arc from the 2018 legacy API shutdowns through the 2023 client ban suggests third-party clients and tools become structurally untenable unless they can absorb per-seat data costs themselves.
The trend: Social platforms are converting formerly open APIs into paid, permissioned access, squeezing independent clients and safety tools toward either paid integration or platform-agnostic pivots.
Birdsite is about to get even less usable for people with characteristics that mean more harassment, for those with many followers, or anyone engaging with controversial issues. — Block Party made Twitter better for me and safer for many.
This is really disappointing news for anyone who's experienced high-volume brigading and harassment on Twitter, or been targeted by prominent clowns. Block Party did a great job offering an important service.
We have a tough update to share: Block Party's Twitter product is going on indefinite hiatus starting tomorrow. We fought hard to stay here, but recent changes have made it impossible for now. We're so sorry it's come to this.
This is sad. BlockParty made my Twitter experience so much better and will be sorely missed. Thank you, @triketora & all of the best with the new product, I can't wait to try it. https://twitter.com/...
Sad if not unexpected news. As a woman with an opinion on the internet, Block Party has hugely improved my Twitter experience by letting me proactively and reactively filter out the very worst behaviour on here. https://twitter.com/...
I've been using this for the last year to minimize trolling and harassment. Absolutely terrible to see this go. Now, it'll be difficult to easily mass block outside of rate limited browser extensions. https://twitter.com/...
i started block party because it felt unfair & terrible that we were just supposed to accept harassment as the price of being online. the last four years we've shown that another way is possible & absolutely worth pursuing: empowering users to have control over their experience. …
Anti-harassment tool @blockpartyapp_ says it's going on “indefinite hiatus” tomorrow since Twitter's new pricing for its API has made operating impossible. Block Party has long been the only thing making this place feel safe for many journalists and activists, esp women and POC. …
Another casualty of Twitter's API pricing changes. I loved @blockpartyapp_. :( The reality is that the platform is becoming increasingly anti-developer, and that's pretty depressing. https://twitter.com/...
Sad news for those seeking tools to keep themselves safe(r) from online hate and harassment. This was an innovative solution to protect people against hate while not “censoring” the haters per se. https://twitter.com/...
block party has been so helpful and protective for me and many other POC/women i know. at times it was the only thing making twitter even usable! very grateful for the service & so frustrated it's come to this ☹️ https://twitter.com/...
I've been so worried about this. @Blockparty is the only thing that makes @Twitter usable. Someone please send me an invite to that other thing. Blockparty's departure is likely to be the final straw for me. [image]
i'm obviously sad we have to put our twitter products on hold right now, for so many reasons but not least because i'm a user of block party too. i built it because i knew how bad it was for my mental health to have to see shittiness in my mentions all day long.
You can read about the situation and what it means for your account if you're a Block Party user here: https://www.blockpartyapp.com/ ... TL;DR, starting tomorrow, everything will stop working. You'll be able to access a read-only archive of your Lockout Folder and block lists ti…
Privacy Party is a browser extension that reduces your risk of harassment, cyberstalking, impersonation, fraud, spam, and other online attacks with automated privacy playbooks for your social media accounts. [image]
This is a huge loss for Twitter community members who need the most protection from harassment. That said, I'm so happy to hear that the company has a new plan to keep going with a browser extension. https://twitter.com/...
Block Party, an anti-harassment tool, is the latest of the third-party apps pushed off of Twitter. The loss of this platform—smart, necessary, grassroots, and truly for the people—may be the disappointment that's tipped me into a real Fall of Rome opinion about this site https://…
This isn't the end of Block Party the company! We're just pausing our Twitter product. And we've been hard at work on something new: https://www.blockpartyapp.com/ ...
Block Party raised almost $5 million to make tools that help people moderate their experience on Twitter. But it was built on the back of the Twitter API. https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Daaaaaamn. This is gonna lose Twitter a fair number of users I suspect. (Myself among them, possibly.) Twitter's much less usable and much less pleasant without it. 😔 https://twitter.com/...
I was watching Succession, a show about corporate greed and the effects it has on real people, but then I stopped to write this article, which is basically about corporate greed and the effects it has on real people. @blockpartyapp_ https://techcrunch.com/...
Well this sucks, and Twitter is entirely to blame. I'm not sure I want to navigate this hellhole without Block Party. Thanks for making things more tolerable here for the past few years. https://twitter.com/...