Twitter has made an exception to its paid structure for API access. Normally, companies have to pay a subscription to access the Twitter API to automate tweets, for example, but it makes an exception for public information provision. This means that tweets for emergency messages from the government or weather updates can be prepared for free, once an account passes the verification check.
Despite the good intentions, the waiver adds yet another layer of complexity to the structure of Twitter’s API offerings. After introducing the API service against payment, it soon became apparent that it would restrict parties wanting to provide information to citizens. For example, public alerts from the US National Weather Service and the New York subway service were unable to continue due to the limitation of 1,500 automated tweets per month. Twitter has not provided any information about any restrictions that may accompany the free API exemption.
It is not the first time that Twitter has been unclear about changes to its services. For example, it initially announced that free access to APIs would not start until a month later, before deciding to implement the closure a week later. The final closure of free APIs caused many problems for various apps and websites, including third-party providers of Twitter content.
Microsoft has since removed Twitter from its advertising platform, again due to the change in Twitter’s API policy. In addition, WordPress stopped supporting the platform.
