Error Code 226 - This request looks like it might be automated

jaakkosf · 2014-04-15T22:40:37.000Z

We’ve seen several discussions around developers receiving Error Code 226 in response to requests for tweet or direct message creation using the POST statuses/update, POST statuses/update_with_media and POST direct_messages/new endpoints. This previously undocumented error code has been added to our Error Codes & Responses list and is tied to our efforts to protect our users from spam and potentially malicious activity.

We constantly monitor and adjust our filters to block spam and malicious activity on the Twitter platform. These systems are tuned in real-time. If you get this response our systems have flagged the Tweet or DM as possibly fitting this profile. If you feel that the Tweet or DM you attempted to create was flagged in error, please report the details around that to us by filing a ticket at https://support.twitter.com/forms/platform.

Filing a ticket at the above URL is the best course of action to resolve any false positives we may be seeing in these detection efforts.

We’re working to improve our process in documenting new error codes for our devleoper community, ideally getting new codes on dev.twitter.com before they could start to show up in our responses to your API calls. We appreciate your patience as the team works towards this goal.

footieengland · 2014-04-28T19:37:35.000Z

Dear Jacob

Firstly great to see a response on the error code 226 from one of you guys. I am sure that it had many developers ripping their hair out since October 2013.

Whilst I am sure many of the developer community accept that spam was becoming an issue on twitter. After all we probably all got spammed with the latest Viagra offers or phishing dm saying have you see. his post about you etc.

However these new spam filters seem to be killing off real developers which is shame as the few seem to have spoiled it for the many.

I did file a ticket as instructed and one of your team kindly fixed the issue but after attempting to send a dm containing a link to my app. it quickly reverted back to the error code 226 after a few min (70 dm from 10 users keys which contained links to my app) which seems to have be blocked to my api key for good there after.

Having an app with 10s of thousands of users you can imagine we do need to process quite a high volume of dm each day and these spam filters seem to make that job just impossible. Of course we can remove an link to our website and the dm seems to work just great so for now that seems the way ahead.

However would be good to know if one day we could use our brands URL in without them being blocked all the time. Maybe the idea of whitelisting certain apps or dm texts that pass a means test in the future could be considered?

If you could shed any light on how I could get this to work it would be much appreciated. My ticket ref that was resolved originally was 01139377, but the issue soon returned and I was back to square one.

Best regards

OneLouderLord · 2014-04-29T16:18:00.000Z

We are seeing the error response “This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later” when updating a status from TweetCaster for Android which includes a hashtag that is trending. In the following example, #mizzou is included in the tweet (which is trending in Kansas City). Posting the tweet is failing. However, using another application to post this tweet is successful.

https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json?status=%23mizzou%20test%20tweet

Code 403: This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later.

We filed a ticket at https://support.twitter.com/forms/platform as well but any help is appreciated.

JustinFurniss1 · 2014-04-30T19:12:31.000Z

We started to get the 226 error yesterday due to a bug in our code. Long story short, our app went haywire and sent the same tweet multiple times for several users.

I have submitted a ticket citing our case and asking to have the “muzzle” removed. I can still send tweets with other content but if the content of the tweet is the same as the originally offending tweet I still get a 226 message.

My question is this: Is it that specific message that is blocked or will I still get a 226 with messages that are similar (same image / link / hashtag /etc)? Is it temporary and if so, how long will it last?

I understand that you might prefer to keep information like this private to help protect against the bad guys but any insights would be great!

Thanks!

viablo2004 · 2014-05-05T01:10:55.000Z

I’m getting this notification when I’m simply trying to send a tweet. Any tweet. I’m not a developer, a company, or a person who wants to sell or promote anything. I don’t understand why I’ve been flagged, there’s no information on the website anywhere on how to contact the team about the issue, and I’ve been unable to use the site for a week because of this. Can someone PLEASE contact me about this and unflag my account?

Freed0m_machine · 2014-05-06T09:22:30.000Z

I also started to get this error by simply trying to tweet. It was a tweet which I had never sent before. Now I can not tweet anything. None of the options on the support page cover this issue so I can’t report it either.

Filtrala · 2014-05-06T13:01:08.000Z

Same problem. Get the error for ANY tweet I send. Can you solve it?

Freed0m_machine · 2014-05-06T23:52:02.000Z

In the end I solved it by changing my password.

TijuanaWirikuta · 2014-05-10T17:08:00.000Z

We keep getting Error Code 226 for the last few days (regarding autoamated requests/spams and other malicious activities…). At our end, we see no reason for this. It is preventing us from continuing our good work. We reported the details around that to twitter by filing a ticket at https://support.twitter.com/forms/platform , but no answer/fix yet. Any help to resolve this problem would be much appreciated! -team @tijuanawirikuta

in_reverie · 2014-05-19T01:11:43.000Z

I’m exactly the same. I have not a developer, not trying to sell anything, make possibly up to 5 tweets a day. Cannot post any tweet - whether its using the actual website, the official twitter app or a third party app.

I do not understand why I would be blocked and would appreciate someone to help me.

Staael2014 · 2014-05-21T18:10:17.000Z

Change your password and all should be working again…

Cen_Estudios_M2 · 2014-05-26T18:06:00.000Z

Hello, I have changed the password but not work

TaylorMadeBody · 2014-06-06T18:40:00.000Z

This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later. I’m unable to write a tweet and it’s been two day now?

HeardLocally · 2014-06-23T01:52:33.000Z

we are a developer and have users using our service - basically our application allows a user to schedule tweets during the day - non of which are spam - and all within the “limits” of the API…

All messages we send are status updates - we do not allow DM’s at all.

may it have anything to do with needing to be posted over a secure connection?

Or has the IP of our server been blocked. We’d like to resolve this issue for out users as soon as possible and it would be helpful to know why this is happening and why it just started today?

Our application has been running without any issue or changes on our end for months now.

devmypro · 2014-06-23T02:43:14.000Z

hi
if i sand the same tweet to 1000 user in one time that will block my app ?

imsantoshj · 2014-06-26T15:03:51.000Z

Grr!

Instead of showing a 226 and a message.
Cant we show a “Captcha” that users enter to auth the validity of the action being performed?

This is #annoying.

Regards,
Santosh J
Im_SantoshJ

mttvll · 2014-07-07T07:03:30.000Z

@jaakkosf Every tweet coming from my app is being rejected with a 226 error. This is happening for all the users of the app. Any idea why? Any solution?

geoseo_it · 2014-07-10T15:47:54.000Z

Hi,

when I use a link to my domain (www.geoseo.it) in my tweets I receive the following error:

“This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later”

Can you guys tell me how I can fix this issue?

thanks!

creaturesOfTheD · 2014-07-11T01:14:37.000Z

using socialoomph we keep getting this message

“Posting status update unsuccessful. Twitter said: This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later. (226)”

We need our account for promotions and do not know why this is happening.

the top of the page reads
"ISSUE: TWEETS BEING REJECTED BY TWITTER
If your tweets are being rejected by Twitter with a 226 error code ("…looks like it might be automated…"), please contact Twitter Support and report the problem to them ASAP. It’s a glitch internal to Twitter’s system that only their engineers can fix. Many other applications are also affected by the same problem."

PLEASE HELP!!

BMR610 · 2014-07-11T02:06:10.000Z

@CreaturesOftheD , Same exact problem here!