As you may remember, more than a week ago it was confirmed that Twitter would start charging for the use of its API, another of the many measures taken by the social network since the arrival of Elon Musk to try to improve its numbers. It’s not common for services of this type to charge for access to their APIso the surprise was huge, and to this day there is a lot of analysis that continues to be done about the movement that, at least in principle, does not indicate that it makes a noticeable difference in the accounts of the social network.

With the announcement of the “closure” of free access to the API, Twitter also announced that a new “cheap” plan would be created to continue using its features without having to assume the existing rates at the time, which started at $149 per month for 500 volumes requests to Twitter servers. As we told you before, at the other extreme was $2,499 per month for 10,000 requests. In all cases, the prices are far from what many users who were using free access more than a week ago can afford.

We finally learned that this week Twitter will start offering basic access to its API for $100 a month, although it seems the company is still finalizing the various access plans it will offer, including its pricing, so that doesn’t seem likely, but there could still be some change in that regard. It would be more than desirable for that to happen and go lower, but as I say, it seems pretty unlikely.

So with these new terms in place, The Verge focuses on a particularly troubling issue with this change, and it’s in more than the harmful effects that exclusively paid access to the Twitter API can have in the world of research and journalism. Until now, much of the conversation about the effects of this measure has been about the services affected, but we must not forget that much research in the social field has been carried out thanks to open and free access to data. , something where the API is essential.

From researchers to data journalists, including tools like those that try to determine whether an account is real or a bot, they may not be able to continue their business if they can’t afford to pay for API access.