Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API (twitter.com)

Article summary

Twitter has announced that it will no longer support free access to its API, starting February 9, and will instead offer a paid basic tier. This change may affect developers and companies that rely on the Twitter API for their services. The announcement has sparked discussion about the risks of building businesses around free APIs from for-profit companies. Twitter's decision may have significant implications for academic researchers, developers, and companies that use the API.

Main themes

• API access and pricing
• business risk and sustainability
• academic research and accessibility
• web scraping and alternatives
• Twitter's platform management and policy
• developer and user concerns

What commenters say

• Building a business around a free API from a for-profit company is risky because the API can be discontinued or become paid at any time.
• Even paid APIs can be subject to price increases or discontinuation, but the risk is perceived as lower than with free APIs.
• Some argue that it's acceptable to pass the cost of API access on to customers, while others believe that this can be a significant burden.
• Academic researchers may be disproportionately affected by the change, as they often rely on free API access for their research and may not have the budget to pay for API access.
• Using a website's API is not the only option, as web scraping can be used as an alternative, although it may be more difficult and require more resources.
• The decision to discontinue free API access may be seen as a way to solve the problem of bots and abuse on the platform, but it may also have unintended consequences, such as crippling academic research.
• The change may also raise concerns about accessibility, as some users may not be able to afford the paid API tier or may be affected by changes to the website's accessibility features.