After putting its API behind a paywall, Twitter is now reversing course and cutting out emergency and transportation agencies — some of which have already left the platform.
in Tweet The platform, posted from a Twitter Dev account on Tuesday, says that “verified or publicly owned government services that tweet out weather alerts, transit updates, and emergency notifications” can continue to use the API for free. What exactly the company means by “verified” isn’t clear. Does it only apply if the agency enables a new “verified” account, and do they have to pay to have checkmarks on any subaccounts that might require API access?
We really started to see the effects of these API changes last month when several emergency and transportation accounts had issues posting alerts on the platform. While some National Weather Service Twitter accounts have been suspended without any explanation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) have also experienced disruptions accessing their API.
With the free version of Twitter’s API, users can only post 1,500 automated tweets per month. Prices go up from there, with the basic amateur tier costing $100 per month and the “low cost” enterprise plan reportedly going for $42,000 per month. This setting is clearly not ideal for the many weather and transportation agencies that send out many automated tweets every day to alert users of emergencies or travel delays.