Twitter just announced it its API would no longer be free for developers. A drastic decision by the platform, of which it is part Elon Musk’s desire to cut spending as much as possible.
Effective February 9
Short for Application Programming Interface, an API allows you to connect one piece of software or service to another to exchange data and functionality. In the case of Twitter, is used by third parties to collect and analyze public social network datawhich can then be used to create programmable bots and separate applications that plug into the platform.
Until then, Twitter offered a free version of this device, plus paid upgradable tiers for developers to build additional business features. Starting February 9, the free version will be deleted from the map. A paid offer will be offered instead.
” Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent out over a trillion Tweets and billions more every week. Twitter data is among the most powerful datasets in the world. We are committed to enabling quick and complete access so you can continue to create with us. “writes the Twitter Developer account.
Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. Instead, a paid basic level will be available 🧵
— TwitterDev (@TwitterDev) February 2, 2023
Musk wants to generate much more revenue
” Yes, the free API is being seriously abused right now by scammers and opinion manipulators. There’s no verification process or cost, so it’s easy to build 100,000 bots to do bad things », declared Elon Musk.
This decision will affect a large number of people, like many developers working on instruments and robots, such as weather observers and colorizers of black and white images, that researchers using Twitter data to study online behavior and collect information for research, reports The limit.
However, this announcement is hardly surprising. Twitter has already banned third-party apps like Tweetbot from offering an alternative to its platform, whileElon Musk is doing everything to reduce expenses and generate new revenue in a difficult environment. In particular, it has overhauled the Twitter Blue subscription system to make it more profitable and hopes to integrate payment methods into the social network.
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