Twitter Makes It Easy For Researchers To Use The Data Platform

Media sosial Twitter (Photo by PhotoMIX-Company on Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Since Twitter first introduced the Twitter API in 2006, many academics have used data from public conversations to research certain topics. Starting from the spread of the flu to how the development of English-American on social media.

"Today, academic researchers are one of the largest groups using the Twitter API," wrote Twitter Product Manager Adam Tornes on the company's official blog, Wednesday, January 27.

Last July 2020, Twitter announced its plan to participate in academic research that could provide better solutions for society. Yesterday, Tuesday, January 26, the company announced its newest product which is named Academic Research Product Track.

Academics are one of the biggest groups using the #TwitterAPI to research what's happening. Their work helps make the world (& Twitter) a better place, and now more than ever, we must enable more of it. Introducing 🥁 the Academic Research product track! Https: //t.co/nOFiGewAV2

- Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) January 26, 2021

This new version of the Twitter API will make it easier for researchers to access public data from the social media platform. In addition, Twitter has also added a search feature so that researchers can get the data they need faster.

"In recent years, we (Twitter) have always repeated steps in order to improve the experience of researchers, such as when we launched a web page devoted to Academic Research and updated the Twitter Developer Policy to make it easier to validate or redesign other people's research using Twitter data," he explained. Adam Tornes.

Requirements for getting access to Twitter data

The Academic Research Product Track is expected to have a major impact on academics. Both for general election security research that is in the spotlight in the United States (US), to global issues such as misinformation that has a major impact on companies.

The reason is, the Twitter API before this was only available to developers and was subject to a large fee. However, with the new API, researchers with company approval can get full access to public conversations on the platform for free.

But there are still limitations given by the company. Adam Tornes explained that this Twitter API cannot be used by independent or independent researchers. This feature is limited to students, or researchers from academic institutions approved by Twitter.

Feedback from hundreds of researchers around the world helped shape what's launching today: • The full history of public conversation data ⌛ • A higher Tweet cap 📈 • Advanced filtering ability 🔍 • Technical resources 🧑‍💻 • And all available for free 🎉

- Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) January 26, 2021

"You are S2 students, doctoral candidates, Post-Doctoral students, teaching staff, or researchers who work in academic institutions," explained Adam Tornes.

Therefore, any researcher who wishes to gain access is expected to fill out the Academic Research application form.

"We need this additional step to protect the security and privacy of Twitter users and the developer platform," said Adam.

Later, each application will go through a manual review process. The review is carried out to determine whether the research is in accordance with the Developer Policy established by the company.