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Even developers who want to pay for the API are having trouble:
Twitter has finally shut off its free API and, predictably, it's breaking a lot of apps and websites. The company had previously said it would cut off access in early February, but later delayed the move without providing an updated timeline.
But, after announcing its new paid API tiers last week, the company seems to have started cutting off the thousands of developers relying on its free developer tools. Over the last couple days, a number of app makers and other services have reported that the Twitter API is no longer functioning. Mashable reported the shutoff seems to have started Tuesday morning, though many developers are still trying to understand what's happening as Twitter doesn't seem to have communicated with most developers about the changes.
The ending of Twitter's free API comes after the company abruptly changed its rules to ban third-party Twitter clients as part of a larger shakeup of its developer strategy. But, as we've previously reported, third-party clients were only a small fraction of the developers, researchers, bot makers and others who relied on Twitter's APIs.
[...] All of these issues are further complicated by the fact that Twitter seems to have communicated very little with any of its developers about these changes or what they mean. Most of the employees who worked in developer relations were cut during the company's mass layoffs. And the company's developer forums are filled with posts from confused developers looking for answers. The company no longer has a communications team, and its press email auto-responds with a poop emoji.
As Mashable points out, the shutoff has even affected developers who are willing to pay for Twitter's API, even though pricing for higher-level enterprise tiers is still unclear. "When Twitter announced these new tiers last week, we immediately sought to sign up for the Enterprise tier," Echobox wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. " We still have had no response from Twitter's enterprise sales team and our access to the API was cut off without notice yesterday."
[...] But it's still unclear how many developers will be able to continue using Twitter's API in some form. The free and $100/month "basic" tier are extremely limited compared to what was previously offered for free. And, while Twitter hasn't revealed exactly how much the "enterprise" level will cost, many are expecting it to be prohibitively expensive – rumors have suggested it could cost $40,000 a month or more.
[...] Some developers aren't even waiting to find out the pricing details. The developer of Social Bearing, an analytics service used by researchers, said there was no way the service could continue to run. "I wish those of you left at Twitter and fellow devs the best of luck," they tweeted.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Tuesday April 11, @02:24AM (8 children)
Yea, I was hopeful there for a second, but no such luck. If only twatter would go one step further and just shut itself off for good.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 11, @02:40AM (5 children)
That could be their new business model! They shut themselves off and stay off if companies agree to pay them $40k/month.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday April 11, @07:16AM (4 children)
I get the impression that their new business model is to charge for everything that was previously "free" -- little icons, colour of the bird and various services that claim you are an authentic old skool superuser etc.
So that they'll charge for premium access to the API doesn't seem that far fetched or out of the normal. It's the drug-dealer special, first taste being free and all and then the price goes thru the roof. I'm sure a lot of those apps if they pull in the $ themselves might fork over a few bucks to keep working, that said $40k a month or 480k per year might seem a bit excessive but I don't know -- perhaps it's normal or ok.
Or Twitter is shutting them down to create their own service, app or setting that does more or less the same thing. After all now they know what works and what people apparently wants or can't live without as others have done the heavy lifting for them to see what kind of things stick to the twitter walls after all the flinging have already taken place.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by digitalaudiorock on Tuesday April 11, @12:48PM (3 children)
But it's actually WAY more stupid than that. For example Elon thinking he can a) charge for a blue check mark, while b) removing the actual validation which was the ONLY thing that gave it any value! It can't be overstated how remarkably stupid that is. He's also ignoring that fact that a LOT of people never post at all, and are only there to follow various famous people or experts etc that he seems to be trying to drive away, when he should probably be paying them. Remarkable doesn't cover that.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday April 12, @02:31PM
But it's actually WAY more stupid than that.
I agree, the Tide Pod challenge was smarter. But cocaine seems to have rotted all the billionaires' brains, because there are people even more stupid than them who will pay for free shit. Examples?
Bottled water. Have you noticed a shortage of drinking fountains lately?
Matches. When was the last time you saw free matches? Now you have to buy a lighter, or a box of matches.
Internet gaming. Back in the Quake days, playing on the internet was the sale price of the game and your ISP's fee. Today they want another fifty bucks a month.
Television. Music. Pretty sure there will be a charge for breathing, if today's busy fascists have their way.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Wednesday April 12, @04:52PM (1 child)
Wow. Apparently NPR just stopped using all 52 of their official Twitter feeds because Elon's chosen to falsely label them as "state-affiliated media [npr.org]" just as they do fir Russia and China. Talk about a fucking shit-for-brains troll with WAY too much money. That platform just can't go down the bowl fast enough.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @05:04PM
NPR is more of an unholy partnership of misanthropic philanthropic Gates Foundation type organizations, big corporate donors, and government money laundered through CPB-funded member stations licensing content from NPR. It's hard to capture all that mess with one label.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stormreaver on Tuesday April 11, @12:59PM
That seems to be its current trajectory, and I don't think the world will be any worse for wear when it happens.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday April 12, @02:24PM
Twitter, the social media platform for twits.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience