Some popular accounts likely to disappear from Twitter as Elon Musk ends free access to API

The API provides access to Twitter data, which can be used to create third-party apps, automated bots, customer service tools for brands, and enables researchers to report on trends or patterns on the site.

While many larger companies already pay for access, it is unlikely some of the smaller developers of popular tools and accounts will be able or willing to pay.

When someone posts a long thread of tweets on a topic, often someone will @ the thread reader app, which will generate the content of those tweets in a more readable format.

Many automated accounts are made for fun, such as those that tweet out photographs or artwork at regular intervals.

Many of them charge, which suggests they might already pay Twitter for API access, but the changes could spell doom for others.

Earthquake bots and other accounts set up to post automatic updates on the weather, environment or health issues such as Covid can be extremely useful. They generally work by scraping data from other sites and automatically tweeting it using the Twitter API.

The first hint Twitter would clamp down on use of the API was in mid-January when Twitter suddenly shut off access for Tweetbot, a third-party Twitter app optimised for Apple products. The move was not initially explained, but the company later said it was enforcing a long-held policy.

Twitter has not said what it will charge for basic API access, nor has it indicated whether the charge will apply to all users of the API, including researchers.

Twitter no longer has a communications department to approach for comment, but questions were sent to the email address previously used by the organisation to field press enquiries.