From February 9, access to the Twitter API, the tool that allows a developer to use tweets published on the platform, will become chargeable. A radical change that should cause the end of many accounts created by volunteers.
Elon Musk has a problem with third-party developers. After having arbitrarily decided to block applications that provided access to the social network (such as Tweetbot or Twitterific), the billionaire is now attacking those who use the Twitter API, the tool made available to developers. to create automations from social network data.
On February 9, just one week after the announcement of this change, the API will become paid for everyone (it was formerly free with a limit of use per day). The consequence of this change could be devastating for thousands of projects.
Some accounts are already announcing their closure
Since his arrival at Twitter at the end of 2022, Elon Musk has done everything to increase the income of the social network. After laying off more than half of the employees and launching a paid subscription at 8 dollars per month (which is strangely still not available in France), the billionaire seems to have plans to kill everything that was free at Twitter before.
The API, which makes Twitter a source of information without any equivalent, will soon be reserved for developers ready to pay every month (the price of this “basic” offer is still unknown). Problem, most projects that use the free form were created by enthusiasts without sufficient income to finance their work. RedTheBot, which analyzes the political leanings of people who like a tweet, is a good example of the likely collateral victims of this shift. The price of the API could force its developers to throw in the towel.
On its site reserved for developers, Twitter already markets paid versions of the API for people who use it extensively (platforms that analyze links between accounts and a government, for example). The minimum subscription price is $149 per month, which doesn’t bode well one week from the end of free. The subscription can go well over $2,000 per month if you want to be able to perform a lot of requests simultaneously, especially since even more expensive “enterprise” versions exist.
With this change, Elon Musk proves once again that he does not understand all of the strengths of Twitter, which he nevertheless bought 44 billion dollars. The social network is an excellent source for information and entertainment, but not only. What has long been its strength is the richness of its ecosystem, which Elon Musk is stifling, little by little.
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