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Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

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Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#411

Post by anigbrowl »

JamesMcMinn wrote: post #147
cguess wrote: post #76

A huge concern that no one seems to be mentioning is that pretty much all academic data sets that used the Twitter API were required by the TOS to only be released publicly with the tweet ids, not the content of the tweet. Some of these have hundreds of thousands of tweets, and the only way to check the work of the researchers, or to build on it, is to use the api to reseed everything yourself. With this new policy t…

I created the Events2012 dataset which has around 120,000,000 tweets reduced from an original sample of several billion. It is now over 10 years old, but still cited and still requested fairly regularly. Previously, my response has been to send over the Tweet IDs, but now I have a dilemma because I understand the privacy concerns that resulted in the ID only policy but also think that Twitter data offers quite a lot…

Didn't know you were on here. I found your thesis very informative, thanks.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#412

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

HWR_14 wrote: post #400
anigbrowl wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people would have argued with him. There are people that fawn on him one day and then complain that 'the algorithm has shadowbanned them again' the next, and he spends a surprising amount of time engaging with them. It's like some weird parody of an abusive relationship, with the world's erstwhile richest man and uber-CEO earnestly and repeatedly appeasing influencers like 'Catturd.' To an extent I think this…

You are correct people on the internet would have argued with them. I should have been clearer. His employees at Twitter, the bankers, the minority shareholders of Twitter and the advertisers would have all accepted his claim that "bots have been defeated enough".

I don't know that they would have, but regardless it seems like Elon really cares what the people online say. He's going out of his way to engaging in memes from his "fans".

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#413

Post by anigbrowl »

tablespoon wrote: post #348
naasking wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter was a big driving force in that movement. Being able to track moment by moment activity and movements and how this shaped the Arab spring is not something you could achieve with other sources.

> Twitter was a big driving force in that movement. Being able to track moment by moment activity and movements and how this shaped the Arab spring is not something you could achieve with other sources. Would anyone have been able to do that without paying? Years ago, someone told me you could get at most 1% of the "firehose" without paying, and if you paid you could get ~10% (however the free sample wasn't a subset…

You can do a lot with the 1% sample - indeed you would probably want to filter it further, both because retrieved streams count toward your monthly tweet cap (2 million/mo on the best non-academic free tier, I think 5m or 10m month if you are a postgrad w/institutional affiliation), and because the filtering capabilities are pretty rich. An obvious use case is tracking big political or industrial influencers and estimating their reach and peer cohort by looking at different kinds of engagement they get.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#414

Post by anigbrowl »

akmarinov wrote: post #117
cguess wrote: post #76

A huge concern that no one seems to be mentioning is that pretty much all academic data sets that used the Twitter API were required by the TOS to only be released publicly with the tweet ids, not the content of the tweet. Some of these have hundreds of thousands of tweets, and the only way to check the work of the researchers, or to build on it, is to use the api to reseed everything yourself. With this new policy t…

Maybe they should’ve considered whether it was wise to tie they research to a company that might not exist in 5 years

More like a huge new source of sociological data collected at massive scale appears, and you'd be a complete idiot not to study it. I feel your comment is like saying astronomy is a bad career choice because pollution and cloudy weather are likely to limit the scope of your research opportunities.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#415

Post by anigbrowl »

cguess wrote: post #95
anigbrowl wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

feel free to get in touch How? I am not a full-fledged network scientist, but I know a whole lot of academics in this space and am good enough to swap tips/find minor math errors. I know quite a lot of people staring down the exact problem you describe.

here's fine? Message me on Twitter, @cguess

I did, feel free to DM. Thanks.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#416

Post by matthew-wegner »

snake_doc wrote: post #154
anigbrowl wrote: post #3

- announced at 10pm - basically a week to decide what to do with your dev project - No information to help you make that decision This seems like more management by manchild. I strongly suspect that Musk realized his promises of cutting down bots etc. were failing and that they either couldn't or wouldn't develop abuse detection, so he's decided to solve the problem by making it cost money, with the (perhaps desired)…

API reads/writes don’t generate ad impressions. It’s really that simple. All the bot nonsense is rhetoric.

API writes absolutely generate ad impressions.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#417

Post by cbeach »

If it’s a reasonable price I don’t mind paying a bit to keep my hobby projects going. To be honest I’m surprised I’ve had free access to Twitter’s graph for so long.

That said, I’m pissed off at Musk for giving so little time, and so little information.

I realise he needs to sort out the bot problem, and needs to diversify Twitter’s revenue streams, but developers have helped create legitimate content on the network, and helped invent a useful ecosystem around it, which in turn has helped Twitter grow its native user base and brand.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#418

Post by anigbrowl »

kibwen wrote: post #280
brutuscat wrote: post #157

Time to crawl! You can use something like Webrecorder, which IPFS also uses to pin tweets: https://blog.ipfs.tech/announcing-pin-tweet-to-ipfs/ See https://webrecorder.net Example https://replayweb.page/?source=https%3A%2F%2Freplayweb.page%...

Headlines one week from now: "Twitter announces they will be discontinuing the web interface"

I'm holding out for 'Wanna tweet? That will be $1'

Incidentally they started sending out emails yesterday offering gold organization checkmarks for $1000/month + $50 per public-facing seat. I'm not sure how many businesses will want this, but I bet a lot of political nonprofits and media outlets will leap at the opportunity to boost their visibility (more boosting available for more $, kinda like promoted tweets).

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#419

Post by anigbrowl »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #301
Yabood wrote: post #57

We have a business that relies on the Twitter API. I don’t mind paying to access the API, but the way they’re handling this makes me want to deprecate support for Twitter entirely. I am only learning about this change from this thread. Even worse, we only have 7 days to react.

Serious question though: If you're a business, is it really a huge deal to part with, idk, maybe $10-$20 a month for the API (idk what it will cost)? Talking in pure financial terms.

No, even I would consider those sums although I'd prefer not to. Musk's been spitballing '$100/month + your ID' - don't have the link handy but you can just scroll his feed as he treats it like a brain dump.

I'm not that anonymous but I can't say I like the idea of having to provide a copy of my legal identification just to make an API call. Especially considering Twitter's less-than-perfect record on securing PII. What if your published research shows something unfavorable to Twitter (eg a long-term decline in engagement across the platform0 and you start receiving hate mail at your home address?

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#420

Post by freejazz »

jurassic wrote: post #387
freejazz wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Twitter pulled the layoffs Musk did, without having taken on his debt, it would have posted profits that quarter.

Doubtful. Ad revenue is wayyyyyy down due to the impersonation/brand safety crisis Elon triggered with his erratic product moves. Letting any jokester with $8 impersonate global brands erased hundreds of millions in revenue per quarter from Twitter's bottom line. The debt situation is just an additional financial mismanagement cherry on top.

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but this was before Elon bought it. Twitter easily could have posted profits that year if they did the firings he had ultimately done. I thought that temporality made it clear we are talking in a hypothetical but I guess I wasn't clear.
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