Last 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 providing good content that is free.”
This resolution is as opaque as a few of the different coverage selections beneath Musk’s administration. There is not any data on what constitutes “good content” and who will determine that. However, if Twitter finally ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a brand new lifeline on the social community.
Previously, Twitter shuttered API entry to third-party shoppers 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 access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”
Following the announcement, lots 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 companies. Last week, Buzzfeed interviewed a number of bot builders who have been sad with the choice. These embrace @_restaurant_bot which tweets random pictures of eating places and @_weather_bot_which tweets photos of various locations with climate updates.
At the second, it’s not clear if accounts like @BigTechAlert, which tweets about massive tech execs and organizations following and unfollowing one another, shall 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 mentioned that a few of these bots with 1000’s of followers convey pleasure to many individuals day by 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 have more than 80 bots on Twitter so it would take me several thousand dollars to keep them up every year and I can’t afford that kind of money,” 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 indicate advertisements in replies to share income with creators. While the main points on how this can work are skinny, the Twitter CEO mentioned that solely Blue Subscribers can earn this cash. So it’s seemingly that content material bots gained’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 price. Twitter’s v2 API had particular entry for teachers however which may not be the case beneath the brand new API guidelines.
Developers have additionally pointed out that lots 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.