Last week, Twitter announced that it would be discontinuing free access to its API starting February 9th. A few days before the deadline, Elon Musk said Twitter will offer a write-only API after getting feedback from developers. free. “
The decision is as opaque as other policy decisions under Musk’s control. There is no information about what constitutes “good content” or who determines it. However, if Twitter were to implement this rule, some bots would get a new lifeline on the social network.
Earlier, Twitter said it closed API access to third-party clients, violating a “long-standing rule” with no specification. The company has since silently updated its Developer Terms to reflect that apps may not “use or access the Licensed Material to create or attempt to create services or products that substitute for or are similar to the Twitter Application.” Did.
After the announcement, many developers made fun of the bot criticized the decision They say their automation provided people with free content, which in turn enhanced their service. Last week, Buzzfeed interviewed several bot developers who were unhappy with this decision.These include @_restaurant_bot Tweet a random photo of a restaurant, @_weather_bot_Tweet images of various locations with the weather forecast.
At this time it is not clear if you like the account @Big Tech Alerttweets about large tech executives and organizations following and unfollowing each other, but subject to this free tier because they may need to scan their account information becomes.
The developer who developed Darius Kazemi 80 and more bot These automated accounts have been an integral part of Twitter for years, including hosting the Bot Developer Summit in 2016, he told TechCrunch in a call. Some of these bots said they bring joy to many people every day.
He said it would be costly to maintain these bots that provide free content to the platform.
“I have over 80 bots on Twitter, and it costs me thousands of dollars to maintain them every year, and I can’t afford that kind of money,” he said.
Mr. Musk is trying to boost Twitter’s revenue by launching new expensive subscription plans and increasing advertising spending. We also plan to show ads in replies to share revenue with creators. Details on how this works are unclear, but his CEO on Twitter said: Blue subscribers can earn this moneyAs a result, content bots may not earn revenue when ads appear on content bot accounts or in replies below tweets.
The demise of Twitter’s free API doesn’t just affect bot developers. There are many student developers and hate speech and misinformation researchers who may not have the budget to pay a monthly fee. Twitter’s v2 API used to have special access for academics, but that may not be the case with the new API rules.
The developer also sharp outside Many bots distributing spam don’t actually use official APIs. So the company’s intention to shut down the free API to keep spam out may not work.
