Twitter said that in the coming weeks it will be “introducing stricter guidelines around how the Twitter API is used,” sparking concern about how third-party developers will be impacted.

The company last year warned that partners should not create apps which “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience,” in a move which was seen as part of a plan to take more control of its services as it looked toward monetisation.

In the blog post, it noted its work to develop Twitter as a platform, including the ability to “build applications that run within Tweets.”

In order to do this, users “need to be able to see expanded Tweets and other features that make Twitter more engaging to use” – hence its desire to restrict third-party apps which “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.”

And there has already been a high-profile casualty from the revamped regime. Users of social networking site LinkedIn will still be able to publish status updates to Twitter, but no longer post Tweets to a LinkedIn profile, with LinkedIn stating that Twitter had “evolved its strategy."