Final week, Twitter mentioned it’s shutting down free entry to its APIs beginning February 9. Now, days earlier than the deadline, Elon Musk mentioned that after getting suggestions from builders, Twitter will present a write-only API for “bots offering good content material that’s free.”
This resolution is as opaque as among the different coverage selections underneath Musk’s administration. There isn’t any info on what constitutes “good content material” and who will determine that. Nonetheless, if Twitter finally ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a brand new lifeline on the social community.
Beforehand, Twitter shuttered API entry to third-party purchasers saying they broke a “long-standing rule” with none specification. Then the corporate silently up to date its developer phrases to mirror that app can’t “use or entry the Licensed Supplies to create or try and create a substitute or related service or product to the Twitter Purposes.”
Responding to suggestions, Twitter will allow a light-weight, write-only API for bots offering good content material that’s free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2023
Following the announcement, a number of builders who made enjoyable of bots criticized the choice saying that their automation supplied free content material to folks and in flip enhanced the providers. Final week, Buzzfeed interviewed a number of bot builders who have been sad with the choice. These embody @_restaurant_bot which tweets random images of eating places and @_weather_bot_which tweets photos of various locations with climate updates.
Every of us Twitter bot makers already pay for the servers that ship these tweets. That is high-quality. However now some clownstick at Twitter decides additionally they need cash for the priviledge of receiving these tweets.
As a result of making their website a funner place mUsT Be mOnEtIzEd.
— 12 months Progress (@year_progress) February 3, 2023
For the time being, it’s not clear if accounts like @BigTechAlert, which tweets about large tech execs and organizations following and unfollowing one another, will likely be eligible for this free tier as they could must scan account info.
Darius Kazemi, a developer who has remodeled 80 bots and even organized a bot devs summit in 2016, advised TechCrunch over a name that these automated accounts have been an integral a part of Twitter for years. He mentioned that a few of these bots with 1000’s of followers carry pleasure to many individuals each day.
He talked about that it might be expensive to take care of these bots who’re offering free content material to the platform
“I’ve greater than 80 bots on Twitter so it might take me a number of thousand {dollars} to maintain them up yearly and I can’t afford that sort of cash,” he mentioned.
Musk has been making an attempt to generate extra income for Twitter with strikes like a brand new expensive subscription plan and ramping up advert cash. He additionally plans to point out advertisements in replies to share income with creators. Whereas the small print on how this may work are skinny, the Twitter CEO mentioned that solely Blue Subscribers can earn this cash. So it’s possible that content material bots received’t earn cash even when advertisements are displayed on their accounts or in replies beneath their tweets.
Twitter’s free API discontinuation doesn’t simply have an effect on bot builders. There are tons of pupil builders and hate speech or misinformation researchers who won’t have a funds to pay a month-to-month charge. Twitter’s v2 API had particular entry for teachers however which may not be the case underneath the brand new API guidelines.
Builders have additionally identified that a number of bots spreading spam don’t use really use the official API. So the corporate’s intention to close down free API to weed out spam won’t work effectively.