Changes at Twitter Affect Developers, VTubers Alike
Changes to API Access May Affect App Logins; VTubers Using Auto-Posting Applications Affected
Twitter continues to change to the surprise of its users. Its developer team has announced that free access to both versions v2 and v1.1 of the Twitter API will no longer be allowed by February 9, and a paid basic tier will be available instead:
Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead 🧵
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) February 2, 2023
According to the platform, its data sets are among the world's most powerful, and it commits to enabling fast and comprehensive access.
More details from the platform on how they plan to enforce this are yet to be followed—but Twitter CEO Elon Musk is setting expectations that API access could be around $100, with other users chiming in their ideas in the thread:
Yeah, free API is being abused badly right now by bot scammers & opinion manipulators. There’s no verification process or cost, so easy to spin up 100k bots to do bad things.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2023
Just ~$100/month for API access with ID verification will clean things up greatly.
Changes to API Access May Affect App Logins
The use of Twitter API enables companies and even individuals to post tweets automatically (Twitter bots), use Twitter identity as a login method for websites, and cross-post to other social media platforms among others.
Changes in the use of the API prompted Anycolor Inc. to ask Nijisanji ID holders using Twitter as their main login access to link another social account:
【ANYCOLOR IDのTwitter連携について】
— ANYCOLOR株式会社 (@ANYCOLOR_Inc) February 3, 2023
Twitter社より発表されたAPIの無料提供の終了につきまして、ANYCOLOR IDのログインに影響を及ぼすと思われる詳細な発表があり次第、改めてご報告いたします。
ご利用中のお客様は不測の事態に備え、Twitter以外のアカウント連携の追加を推奨いたします。
VTubers Using Auto-Posting Applications Affected—Including Marshmallow
Several Twitter accounts were suspended following the announcement. Tokyo-based researcher and educator Jeffrey J. Hall has observed many users claiming that it may be linked to accounts which use the anonymous Q&A service Marshmallow.
Popular tweets about the problem speculate that the mass suspensions may be related to Marshmallow, but there are other possible reasons, such as using too many hashtags, having sub accounts that like/share your tweets, or following-back too much. https://t.co/EYsaw9MzAI
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) February 3, 2023
On the side of VTubers, Jagaimo has reported her Live2D artist got suspended. She speculated that the suspension may be due to the use of Marshmallow, but she also shared insight from Japanese Twitter users that accounts could also be suspended if their tweets are repetitive.
Marshmallow's Twitter account was temporarily suspended along the process, and when it got restored, it asked users to appeal:
マシュマロ公式、凍結解除されました！
— マシュマロ公式 (@marshmallow_qa) February 3, 2023
スパムでないのに誤って凍結された方は、以下から異議申し立てをすると凍結が解除されると思われます。
大変お手数ですが、念のため各自での異議申し立てをお願いいたします。 https://t.co/GJpJe2TXLR
Banner Photo: Brett Jordan / Unsplash