Twitter Will Provide Broader Free API Access To Software Developers

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc said on Monday, November 15, that it will expand free access to the social networking site's data to help software developers create tools and products that can promote safer online conversations or create content.

The move is part of Twitter's growing efforts over the past year to decentralize the company, a vision that aims to give users more control over what content they see on their Twitter feed or have new ways to share content on the site, Amir said. Shevat, head of product for developer platform Twitter, said in an interview.

Efforts to increase developer access also come as Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies face global scrutiny over how their algorithms generate certain content and their role in enabling the spread of misinformation or hate speech.

Starting Monday, developers can access data for up to 2 million tweets per month via Twitter's application programming interface (API) at no cost.

"We're also changing our API policies to allow for more use cases, including removing restrictions to compete with Twitter," said Shevat.

"I want everyone to be able to define their preferences and have their own curated content tailored to their liking," said Shevat. "We can only do this if the developer is on board."

Some examples of apps built with Twitter data include Block Party, founded by software engineer Tracy Chou that allows Twitter users to filter out content they don't want to see.

Another app created by software engineer Janique-ka John lets users more easily search for Twitter Spaces, the company's live audio chat feature.