Twitter’s plan to enforce pricing tiers for access to its API (Application Programming Interface) will devastate public interest research, the Coalition for Independent Technology Research warns.
Over the past decade, researchers across the world have relied on Twitter’s API to systematically and reliably collect public tweets posted by public figures, gather information about network dynamics, investigate bots and other inauthentic activity, or analyze conversations around specific topics, the Coalition said. Gathered data has been shared with journalists, policymakers, and the public, enhancing understanding of issues vital to society such as the impact of social media on democracy, the role of social media in strengthening public health and amplifying marginalized voices. Free API access also allowed researchers to build public tools like Botometer and Hoaxy that detect social bots and visualize the spread of misinformation, with thousands of users, journalists, and public servants using such tools in their daily lives and work, according the Coalition.
“Twitter’s new system to monetize and dramatically restrict access to its API will render this research and development impossible. Unless they can pay, researchers will not be able to collect any tweets at all,” the Coalition said.
According to a Twitter announcement on March 29, the Basic tier costs $100 per month but allows researchers to collect only 10,000 tweets per month, which, according to the Coalition, represents some 0.3% of what could previously be collected for free in one day. The Enterprise tier, which ranges from $42,000 to $210,000 per month, is unaffordable for researchers, the coalition points out. The Free access is for write-only cases and those testing the API, with only 1,500 Tweets available for scraping per month.
Over 250 projects that would be jeopardized by ending free and low-cost API access, including research into the spread of harmful content, (dis)information flows, crisis informatics, news consumption, public health, elections, and political behavior, according to public interest researchers responses to a questionnaire fielded by the Coalition. Under the new pricing plans, studying the communications and interactions of even a small population—such as the 535 Members of the U.S. Congress or the 705 Members of the European Parliament—will be unfeasible, the Coalition said. The new pricing plans will also end at least 76 long-term efforts, including dashboards, tools, or code packages that support other researchers, journalists, first-responders, educators, and Twitter users, according to data gathered from the questionnaire.
In its March announcement, Twitter mentions that it is looking into new ways to serve the Academia community, mentioning that in the meantime, Free, Basic and Enterprise tiers are available for academics.
“What precisely is Twitter “looking into” for academia? How long might academics have to wait for these new options to appear? And what are Twitter’s plans for non-academic public interest researchers, including civil society organizations serving communities around the globe?,” the Coalition asks, adding that Twitter “has not answered any of these questions” and “has failed to engage with the research community in any meaningful way”.
Meanwhile, the Coalition said it will continue to support the research community for “as long as possible” and has provided mutual aid to nearly 50 projects, focusing in particular on assisting under-resourced and junior researchers. Mutual aid is available to all researchers across academia, journalism, and civil society—members and non-members alike through this form.
“Going forward, the Coalition will also help organize researchers who wish to explore alternative data-collection and data-sharing mechanisms. And we will continue our discussions with policymakers and regulators around the world. Twitter must be held accountable to the public it impacts. And if Twitter is to be held accountable, independent research must continue,” the Coalition stressed.
On February 6, after Twitter first announced its plans to stop free API access, the Coalition published an open letter calling on Twitter to ensure that APIs for studying public content on the platform remain easily accessible for journalists, academics, and civil society and on policymakers to require reliable public-purpose data access for all. “Twitter’s actions threaten to turn out the lights on essential research, innovation, and collective knowledge. That’s why we are standing together to protect the public goods that depend on data access to Twitter,” the Coalition said at the time.
The Coalition for Independent Technology Research works to advance, defend, and sustain the right to study the impact of technology on society. So far, seed funding for the Coalition has been provided by the NetGain Partnership and Media Democracy Fund, according to its webpage.
Image source: TwitterDev
