RealDaddy
Repeatedly violating rules
- Jun 30, 2018
- 9,011
- 11,300
(https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-data-api-prices-out-nearly-everyone/)
Twitter’s API is used by vast numbers of researchers. Since 2020, there have been more than 17,500 academic papers based on the platform’s data, giving strength to the argument that Twitter owner Elon Musk has long claimed, that the platform is the “de facto town square.”
But new charges, included in documentation seen by WIRED, suggest that most organizations that have relied on API access to conduct research will now be priced out of using Twitter.
It’s the end of a long, convoluted process. On February 2, https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1621026986784337922 API access would go behind a paywall in a week. (Those producing “good” content would be exempted.) A week later, he https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1623467615539859456 to February 13. Unsurprisingly, that deadline also slipped by, as Twitter https://inews.co.uk/news/twitter-staff-concerned-over-massive-problems-with-site-and-warn-of-more-issues-to-come-2139083.
The company is now offering three levels of Enterprise Packages to its developer platform, according to a document sent by a Twitter rep to would-be academic customers in early March and passed on to WIRED.
The cheapest, Small Package, gives access to 50 million tweets for $42,000 a month. Higher tiers give researchers or businesses access to larger volumes of tweets—100 million and 200 million tweets respectively—and cost $125,000 and $210,000 a month. WIRED confirmed the figures with other existing free API users, who have received emails saying that the new pricing plans will take effect within months.
“I don’t know if there’s an academic on the planet who could afford $42,000 a month for Twitter,” says Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor at Binghamton University in New York and a member of the iDRAMA Lab, which analyzes hate speech on social media—including on Twitter.
Twitter’s API is used by vast numbers of researchers. Since 2020, there have been more than 17,500 academic papers based on the platform’s data, giving strength to the argument that Twitter owner Elon Musk has long claimed, that the platform is the “de facto town square.”
But new charges, included in documentation seen by WIRED, suggest that most organizations that have relied on API access to conduct research will now be priced out of using Twitter.
It’s the end of a long, convoluted process. On February 2, https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1621026986784337922 API access would go behind a paywall in a week. (Those producing “good” content would be exempted.) A week later, he https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1623467615539859456 to February 13. Unsurprisingly, that deadline also slipped by, as Twitter https://inews.co.uk/news/twitter-staff-concerned-over-massive-problems-with-site-and-warn-of-more-issues-to-come-2139083.
The company is now offering three levels of Enterprise Packages to its developer platform, according to a document sent by a Twitter rep to would-be academic customers in early March and passed on to WIRED.
The cheapest, Small Package, gives access to 50 million tweets for $42,000 a month. Higher tiers give researchers or businesses access to larger volumes of tweets—100 million and 200 million tweets respectively—and cost $125,000 and $210,000 a month. WIRED confirmed the figures with other existing free API users, who have received emails saying that the new pricing plans will take effect within months.
“I don’t know if there’s an academic on the planet who could afford $42,000 a month for Twitter,” says Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor at Binghamton University in New York and a member of the iDRAMA Lab, which analyzes hate speech on social media—including on Twitter.
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