API Layer Access: Master Timeline of AI & Tech Companies Cutting Each Other Off
116 times tech and AI giants cut each other off, from Twitter's API lockdowns to Amazon blocking AI shopping agents and Figma's MCP allowlist. Fully sourced.
This article chronicles the events when major technology and AI companies restricted, revoked, paywalled, or blocked each other's APIs, data, crawlers, apps, or agents. It reveals when the access layer shifted from APIs to crawlers to agents and MCPs. The trigger was a September 30, 2026 post by Wes Bos quoting Figma CEO Dylan Field rejecting MCP co-creator David Soria Parra's proposition.
The timeline traces the origins of the open-API boom from 2007 to 2013 when platforms like Facebook opened their social graphs to developers. However, this openness paved the way for restrictive measures in the following years. During Era 1, Facebook's platform launched in 2007, allowing 65 partners and 85 apps to access its social graph.
Yet, this openness was short-lived as Facebook later sued Power Ventures for unauthorized account access in December 2008. The article details a series of events, including Twitter shutting off Basic Auth in 2010, Google cutting off Facebook's Gmail Contacts API in 2010, and Twitter banning developers from building client apps in 2011.
The article also covers the deprecation of free APIs, lawsuits over IP blocks, and the revocation and restoration of access to various platforms. This timeline provides a comprehensive view of the evolving relationship between tech and AI companies over the past decade, highlighting the increasing control over data and access.
Written by urgent.news from HackerNoon's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
