Final week, Twitter stated it’s shutting down free entry to its APIs beginning February 9. Now, days earlier than the deadline, Elon Musk stated that after getting suggestions from builders, Twitter will present a write-only API for “bots offering good content material that’s free.”
This determination is as opaque as among the different coverage choices underneath Musk’s administration. There isn’t any data on what constitutes “good content material” and who will resolve that. Nevertheless, 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 replicate that app can’t “use or entry the Licensed Supplies to create or try and create a substitute or comparable service or product to the Twitter Functions.”
Following the announcement, a number of builders who made enjoyable of bots criticized the choice saying that their automation offered free content material to individuals and in flip enhanced the companies. Final week, Buzzfeed interviewed a number of bot builders who had been sad with the choice. These embody @_restaurant_bot which tweets random pictures of eating places and @_weather_bot_which tweets photographs of various locations with climate updates.
In the mean time, 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 may must scan account data.
Darius Kazemi, a developer who has made over 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 stated that a few of these bots with hundreds of followers convey pleasure to many individuals day by day.
He talked about that it could be pricey 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 could take me a number of thousand {dollars} to maintain them up yearly and I can’t afford that form of cash,” he stated.
Musk has been attempting to generate extra income for Twitter with strikes like a brand new pricey subscription plan and ramping up advert cash. He additionally plans to indicate adverts in replies to share income with creators. Whereas the main points on how this may work are skinny, the Twitter CEO stated that solely Blue Subscribers can earn this cash. So it’s possible that content material bots received’t earn cash even when adverts 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 finances 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 pointed out 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.
