Twitter User Status Message FAQ

What is a Twitter User Status Message?

A Twitter User Status Message is a message forwarded on from Twitter to you through your DataSift stream, alerting you of a change to the status of a Twitter user's account. 

What are my responsibilities?

Twitter users expect any changes made to their settings on Twitter.com to be reflected across Twitter integrations across the web. This is important for both privacy and security reasons, as Twitter may temporarily suspend certain accounts if they believe them to be compromised. To this end, in order to comply with Twitter's Terms of Service (ToS), your application must handle each user status message as specified in the Twitter User Status Messages documentation page.

Do the Client Libraries deal with these messages automatically?

Client library support is not enough to comply with Twitter's ToS. You must ensure your implementation of the client library takes the appropriate action and acts on the user status message for the Twitter user account in question. 

What do these messages look like?

User status messages are sent in your streams in JSON format. Below is an example of a user_suspend message:

What are the different status messages I could receive?

The different user status messages you might receive are listed on our official Twitter User Status Messages page.

Will I receive these messages for every Twitter user?

You will receive these messages for any Twitter user you follow using the twitter.user.id target in your CSDL.

How long do I have until I need to implement these changes?

This must be implemented by August 1st, 2012.