API Layer Access: Master Timeline of AI & Tech Companies Cutting Each Other Off
This timeline tracks the moments when tech and AI companies restricted, revoked, paywalled or blocked each other's APIs, data, crawlers, apps or agents, plus the lawsuits, reversals and licensing deals that settled those fights. The "access layer" has moved three times: first APIs (who gets the firehose), then crawlers (who gets to train), now agents and MCP (who gets to act for a user).
The trigger was a September 30, 2026 Wes Bos post quote-posting Figma CEO Dylan Field's reply to MCP co-creator David Soria Parra: "Figma doesn't want you to use MCP. Amazon doesn't want you to shop with agents. Reddit won't let Claude access threads. X won't let ChatGPT read tweets. It's starting. This happened with APIs 8 years ago." Every entry below links to the companies' own statements or to coverage from the time. Entries marked (secondary source)still need checking against a primary document before...
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