Twitter never included ads in the feed api, so the clients where just showing the data twitter fed them. You could expose the apis (or embed the ads into the f

Twitter never included ads in the feed api, so the clients where just showing the data twitter fed them. You could expose the apis (or embed the ads into the feed api) that fill the ad spots and report back engagements with those ads, then state in TOS that clients not allowed to remove the ads from the feed and impose design rules on how they are presented to users. You could do what Adsense does and create a library for clients to embed into their applications. However I can see client devs wanting a slice of the adrev pie or a discount on their api charges if they were forced to included ads. Imo it’s just easier to forbid 3rd party clients, that you get to control the experience (including ads) however you want / move fast changing things up, without having to go though the process of making sure 3rd party clients are on bored with the changes