Twitter had already started charging businesses and government groups for its API, starting at $42,000 a month. This decision led many of these businesses and groups to abandon the use of Twitter altogether. Today, Twitter has made another change in its decision, and will now allow government and public safety groups free access to its API, but only for emergency alerts.
One of the most important use cases for the Twitter API has always been public utility. Certified government or publicly owned services that tweet weather warnings, transport updates and emergency notifications can use the API for these important purposes, free of charge.
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) May 2, 2023
The verdict was pronounced. On Twitter dev account. It says government and publicly owned groups “that tweet weather warnings, transportation updates, and emergency notifications” can use its API for free for those specific messages.
Before today’s decision, groups like Seattle Police Department And the New York City Subway announced that it will disable its use of Twitter for alerts due to a new paid API subscription. It remains to be seen whether these groups will return to Twitter.
It seems the company is used to changing its mind when its user base doesn’t care about its actions. Twitter previously said that its blue verified checkmark can only be received if you pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. A few days after these old checkmarks were removed from the legacy verified owners, some of these accounts returned them without paying anything.
