Twitter recently said it would close free access to its APIs starting February 9. Now, well before the deadline, Elon Musk says that after receiving feedback from developers, Twitter will provide a write-only API for "bots that provide good content and it will be free."
This decision is as opaque as some of the other policy decisions under Musk. There is no information on what constitutes “good content” and who will decide that. However, if Twitter ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a new lifeline on the social network.
Previously, Twitter closed access API to third-party clients claiming that they had violated a “data extension rule” without any specification. Following this, the company quietly updated its developer terms to reflect that applications cannot "use or access the licensed materials to create or attempt to create a service or product substitute or similar to the Twitter applications."
In response to feedback, Twitter will enable a lightweight, write-only API for bots that provides good content and is free.
Following the announcement, many developers criticized the decision, saying that their automation provided free content to people and, in turn, improved services. A few weeks ago, BuzzFeed interviewed several bot developers who were unhappy with the decision. These include @_restaurant_bot which tweets random photos of restaurants and @_weather_bot_which tweets images of different places with weather updates.
Each of us Twitter bot creators already pay for the servers that send these tweets. Alright. But now some Twitter clown decides he, too, wants money for the privilege of receiving these tweets. Because making your site a more fun place MUST BE MONETIZED.
Year Progress (@year_progress) February 3, 2023
At the moment, it is unclear if you count as @BigTechAlert, who tweet about big executives and tech organizations that follow and unfollow each other, will be eligible for this free tier, as they may need to scan account information.
Darius Kazemi, a developer who created more than 80 bots and even hosted a bot developer summit in 2016, during which he said these automated accounts have been an integral part of Twitter for years. Some of these bots with thousands of followers bring joy to many people every day.
He mentioned that it would be expensive to maintain these bots that provide free content to the platform.
"I have more than 80 bots on Twitter, so it would cost me several thousand dollars to keep them active each year and I can't afford that kind of money," he added.
Musk has been trying to generate more revenue for Twitter with measures like an expensive new plan subscription and an increase in advertising money. It also plans to show ads in responses to share revenue with creators. While details on how this will work are scarce, Twitter CEO said only Blue subscribers can earn this money. Therefore, content bots are not likely to make money even if ads are displayed on your accounts or in the replies below your tweets.
The discontinuation of Twitter's free API doesn't just affect bot developers. There are millions of students, developers, and researchers on hate speech or misinformation who may not have the budget to pay a monthly fee. Twitter's API v2 had special access for academic purposes, but that might not be the case under the new API rules.
Developers have also pointed out that many bots that spread spam don't actually use the official API. Therefore, it is very possible that the company's intention to close free APIs to eliminate spam does not have the expected effect in that regard.
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