Twitter will have a free API after all, but it will be necessary to meet a series of requirements to use it. Elon Musk, CEO and head of the company, has confirmed in a tweet that several bots will be able to use the aforementioned application programming interface as long as they offer “good content for free.”
Musk, to justify the payment API, he stated in a tweet that “the free API is currently being severely abused by bot scammers and opinion spinners.” He also highlighted that a paid version, whose price will be around $100 per month, as well as identity verification to use it, “will clean things up greatly”.
Since then, however, many users have taken issue with the strategy. Mainly because it harms those bots that offer free and quality content thanks to the Twitter API. Among them, the account of @PepitoTheCat who has expressed his concern upon learning that he will stop providing service after the suspension of the free API.
Precisely, this account is the one that has made Elon Musk recoil. «I guess we could give all verified users API access for posts like this”, indicated the tycoon in his profile. Two days after that tweet, Musk confirmed that “in response to feedback, Twitter will be enabling a lightweight write-only API for bots that provides great content for free.”
Two Twitter APIs to avoid killing those free bots that offer “good content”
Twitter, therefore, will soon have two types of API available. On the one hand, a paid one, which It will cost around $100 per month. and which will be intended for large developers, companies or those users or accounts that offer automated paid content. On the other, a completely free write-only API, which can only be used by verified accounts that offer non-paid content.
It is not clear, yes, if the accounts that want to use the free Twitter API must be verified with the blue badge. This, remember, is obtained by paying $8 per month for Twitter Blue and also allows the social network to verify the identity of the user. Another option is perform a parallel identity verification process. In this way, Twitter would prevent SPAM accounts from taking advantage of the free API, the availability of which is still unknown.
