Facebook Deletes All Cross-Posted Tweets Without Warning

Twitter users who prefer to keep things simple had the option of authenticating Facebook on their account, which would result in tweets being cross-posted to the latter social network. Recent API changes removed that ability, meaning new tweets can't be cross-posted onto Facebook automatically. However, it appears the change has resulted in all past cross-posted tweets disappearing from Facebook timelines, as well.

News of the deletions first surfaced from TechCrunch, which found reports from users complaining that their old cross-posted tweets have all disappeared from their Facebook timelines. Depending on how heavily the user utilized this feature, it could result in huge quantities of Facebook content — as well as interactions with it — vanishing.

Impacted Facebook users are reporting that years' worth of cross-posted tweets vanished from their feed without any warning. It's unclear whether the deletions were intentional or are the result of a bug; there's no word from Facebook on whether these lost cross-posted tweets can be restored.

The issue follows Facebook's recent API change, that itself following the massive Cambridge Analytica scandal that left millions of Facebook users vulnerable. Earlier this year, Facebook announced that apps with permission to publish on Facebook as the user who was logged in wouldn't be able to do so going forward.

Existing apps utilizing the feature would be impacted by the change on August 1, which is exactly what happened. On that date, it was no longer possible for tweets to be automatically cross-posted onto Facebook, instead requiring the user to manually share a link to the tweet. However, users had expected that old cross-posted tweets would remain.

SOURCE: TechCrunch