Twitter Researchers Charge IDR 630 Million Per Month For Access To Decahose Data

Twitter will begin charging fees for access to various APIs (photo: Twitter @twitterDev).

JAKARTA - Researchers who use the free Decahose data service from Twitter will soon be required to pay a fee of US$42,000 (Rp630 million) per month to continue to be able to use the service and maintain their data.

Decahose, a streaming service providing scientists unlimited access to about 10% of all tweets in real-time, has become one of the main sources for academic research on topics, including emergency responses, law enforcement-related activities, political misinformation, and extremism.

Earlier this year, due to the company's purchase by billionaire Elon Musk, Twitter announced that it would start charging fees for access to its various APIs, at varying costs between US$100 (Rp1.5 million) to US$42,000 per month.

"For academics, we are looking for new ways to continue to serve this community. Meanwhile, a choice of tier Free, Basic, and Enterprise is available for academics. Keep following @TwitterDev for more information."

- Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) March 29, 2023

Academics and universities that use the Decahose service will be required to pay an "enterprise" fee of US$42,000 per month according to this new rule, and the amount of available data is rumored to be reduced from 10% from the total direct tweet to 0.3%.

According to a report from British publications, i news, researchers recently received an email explaining that they could start paying for their access or deleting all the data they had obtained.

According to the report, the email said researchers who did not choose to use paid services "need to delete all Twitter data stored and cached in your system."

Researchers also need to post screenshots "which show proof of deletion." They will have 30 days after their agreement ends to complete this process, the newspaper reported.

This change comes at a striking time, as it comes days after Musk joined Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in announcing his candidacy for US Presidential office in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

If implemented as planned, this change in access to Decahose could hamper global research efforts to study misinformation in elections and social manipulation ahead of the 2024 presidential election, given that this social media platform is considered one of the most politically active in the world.

In addition to research on misinformation, changes in prices will also limit academics' ability to study crimes related to the internet, such as human trafficking and financial fraud. In addition, Decahose is also one of the largest repositories on the internet for human sentiment, which is a data source to gain insight and predictions about almost any research topics related to society.

Most of the data used to study sentiment related to cryptocurrencies, for example, comes from Twitter and Reddit. By limiting access to this data, Twitter has the potential to hinder ongoing research and prevent new efforts.

One explanation for the price increase may be related to Musk's ongoing efforts to ensure that tech companies don't use Twitter data to train their AI systems.