Twitter recently announced its latest push to make money for the company, aimed at removing free access to its API, which is affecting a whole host of bots on the platform. However, Elon Musk has since taken to Twitter to say that free access to the API will still be available, but with a catch.
In response to feedback, Twitter will enable a lightweight, write-only API for bots to deliver good content for free.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2023
It’s unclear what is defined as ‘good content’ at the moment, however Musk clarified that when the free tier was removed it was being misused and adding value to the platform. Not being done.
Yes, the free API is currently being abused by bot scammers and pollsters. There is no validation process or cost, it’s so easy to spin 100k bots to do bad things.
Just ~$100/month for API access with ID verification will clear things up.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2023
The fact that the new version of the free tier will be write-only means that those who use the API for academic research, development and study will have to pay for the ability to access these areas of the API. As far as they could get before. Costs.
