[German]Brief information for WordPress users who use the plugin "WP to Twitter" to automatically submit blog posts as tweets on Twitter. The plugin has been suspended by Twitter "for violation of the rules" as of May 23, 2023.
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I had been using the plugin to automatically post incoming blog posts from my various blogs to Twitter. Was a convenient thing and my Twitter followers were in the know. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter and tweaked a lot of settings – including not wanting external programs to use the Twitter API – I was actually waiting daily for the plugin to stop working.
WP to Twitter returns 401 error
Today, May 24, 2023, I noticed in the dashboard that the WordPress plugin reported errors when posting. At the same time, the stream of automatically submitted tweets dried up on May 23, 2023.
I then ran a test in the WP to Twitter dashboard (see above screenshot) – the plugin was able to reach the URL short service but could not send a tweet. However, the error message "(No post) " 401 Unauthorized: The credentials are missing or incorrect. (Error Code: 32: Could not authenticate you.)". Joe Dolson addressed the error in his post WP to Twitter: Frequently Asked Questions and wrote:
401 Unauthorized: Authentication credentials were missing or incorrect.
This is the single most common issue with WP to Twitter. Usually, it can be resolved by re-generating your access token at the Twitter app developer page, verifying that the 'read and write' option is checked. Note that both your application and your access token must have read and write permissions; if the access token was generated before the application was set to read and write, then the access token will still only have read permissions.
Twitter has blocked the plug-in
I then went to the Twitter app developer page to check the settings. There I was immediately shown the reason for the problem.
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The statement is clear, the text "This App has violated Twitter Rules and policies. As a result, it can no longer be accessed." says that Twitter has blocked the WordPress plugin for violating the rules. WP to Twitter is history – I will post less on Twitter. Don't know, whether it was a really cool decision from Elon Musk to block the content provider on his platform.
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