Tweepy's API.create_friendship() causing 401 unauthorized error

[roshypea]

Other API calls are working fine for me, but whenever i make this one i get the 401 error. Why is this and how do i get around it? I have a list of 100 users that i want to follow for my business. If this doesn’t work could someone please suggest an alternative? Thanks!

[Harmon758]

Make sure you have given the app the write permission and re-authorized it.

See the FAQ in Tweepy’s documentation.

[roshypea]

Thanks. I used a chrome extension auto follow tool instead and my account got suspended. Can i just check, if i use the twitter API instead to follow 100 people will twitter be ok with that or will they ban me in that scenario too?

[Harmon758]

You should refer to the Automation rules and About following on Twitter Help Center articles.

[roshypea]

Hey there thanks for your reply. So reading the rules, automation is not allowed and aggressive random following is not allowed. I have a list of 900 gathered users that i want to follow over a period of time and would rather not do them individually. These users all have related interests which is the niche that i am following them for. If i use the createfriendship() method to follow 300 a day with 5 to 10 seconds sleeps in between would this be allowed or would i be suspended?

As far as i can tell it is allowed within the rules, i just don’t know if this counts as aggressive following. I am following with a purpose, but i’m wondering if unaggressive following means programatically following someone when they’ve liked your tweet or something?

Any help much appreciated, Thanks!

[atakan]

In my experience, you or your app get suspended if you create friendships eventually. Twitter simply doesn’t want people to do auto-follow and auto-unfollow actions other than CRM (support systems could create friendships to send DMs to their customers) systems based on my last 4+ years in that area.

There’s no clear answer for what you’re asking for other than the experiences. All you’ll get is “follow the automation rules” which are merely guidelines rather than specific metrics.