Twitter’s announcement earlier this month that it would discontinue free access to its API caused a considerable uproar. The company’s initial deadline for enforcing the restriction was February 9, however, it was later extended to February 13. Now, the social network has once again postponed the end of the free API, but this time there is no set date, adding to the growing list of uncertainty at the Elon Musk-owned company.
The Twitter Developer account said on Monday night that the business will delay the introduction of its new API platform “by a few more days.” The corporation emphasized that there has been “enormous enthusiasm” for the planned platform switch.
In recent weeks, the developer community has expressed alarm over the social media company’s lack of transparency and knowledge. The firm replied in part by locking the developer forum website temporarily behind a login wall without explanation last week. The newly accessible website is inundated with inquiries from developers seeking information on the pricing structure of the new API.
The delay also jeopardizes the ambitions of developers and companies constructing Twitter API-based tools, as they would lack clarity around future expenditure and budget allocation on the platform.
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Twitter announced last week that the default tier of the API for “low-level usage” will cost $100, but did not specify how much usage fits under the “low-level usage” category. Additionally, the business stated that it will offer a free API for posting up to 1,500 tweets every month. This was in accordance with Elon Musk’s commitment to offering a lightweight API to “excellent” content-generating bots.
Numerous academics and researchers are also concerned that they must now pay to access Twitter data, which was previously accessible for free through the Academic Research tier of the Twitter v2 API.
