New reversal by Twitter after move sparked MTA withdrawal

By BARBARA ORTUTAY
AP Technology Writer

In an about-face, Twitter says it has restored free access to a key tool for verified government and “publicly owned” services so they can tweet weather, transit and other alerts. The move comes after New York City’s transit agency said earlier this week it would no longer use the platform for its service advisories. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is among countless official and unofficial accounts that abruptly lost access to Twitter’s API, or application programming interface, to send out automated alerts about service changes and emergencies last week. By Thursday, senior executives agreed to cease publishing service alerts to the platform.