Twitter is adding a fee to another previously free service next week: its application programming interface (API). This allows people “to find and retrieve, engage with, or create” tweets, users, spaces, direct messages and more, according to Twitter.
“Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead,” the Twitter Dev account tweeted earlier today. Twitter did not say how much access would cost.
Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead 🧵
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) February 2, 2023
Twitter API is used by developers who create third party tools on the platform and researchers who analyze the data in their work. The end of this free service with just a week’s notice has people speculating that favorite Twitter bots will shutdown when the charge is implemented.
The change to the Twitter API will effectively kill “every free fun and useful thing ever built with it: bots, games, mashups, visualizations, research projects, autoposters, autoblockers, deleters, and so much more,” Andy Baio, former chief technical officer of Kickstarter, posted to Mastadon.
“Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us,” the Twitter Dev account tweeted.
This isn’t the first service Twitter has monetized since Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022. Twitter introduced an $8 per month subscription model for Twitter verification in late 2022.
More to come.
#Twitter #API #Paywall
