Twitter API changes crush @PossumEveryHour and other good bots
Another day, another Twitter apocalypse. This time Elon Musk’s company is purging some of the most popular automated accounts from its platform.
Little by little over the past few weeks, API access was suspended for a huge cluster of Twitter’s most beloved bots. The suspensions were revealed when Twitter accounts that normally post automated pictures or memes suddenly posted on the site that they are being forced to shut down.
Over the past 24 hours alone, Twitter suspended API access for numerous bot accounts that post photos of animals. Far from being a nuisance, accounts of this type tend to rack up large fanbases. For instance, @PossumEveryHour, which posts photos of possums for its more than 500,000 followers, announced it would be shutting down after losing API access on Friday night. @hourlywolvesbot, which tweets wolf pics for its more than 173,000 followers, also announced it would no longer be posting to Twitter for the same reason.
Other animal picture-posting bot accounts that have announced they’d no longer be able to post on Twitter include @CorgiEveryHour, @HourlyCheetahs, and @HourlyLynxes.
“This app has violated Twitter’s Rules and policies,” reads the message provided to the suspended bot accounts in Twitter’s developer portal. “As a result, it can no longer be accessed.”
According to the creators of the bot accounts, it seems Twitter is suspending API access for bots that either don’t pay for an API subscription, or opt not to join Twitter Blue, the platform’s paid premium service.
It’s unclear exactly why Twitter is suspending these bots now. @PossumEveryHour posted back in February that the account would shut down after Elon Musk shared that API access would require a paid subscription. But, in responding to complaints from Twitter’s users, Musk said he would provide exceptions for “good” bots that provided free content to users. So, @PossumEveryHour and most other “good” bot accounts continued to run.
Some users have found a solution for the bot accounts. It appears that for some bots, the issue is just that Twitter is now getting around to shutting down their old free API tiers. This means that some bots could continue to run, albeit with less regularity, via Twitter’s new extremely limited free tier that was set up for those “good” bots. They would need to manually setup the account once again on the new Twitter API.
But, that’s not the case for every bot account, as some have found that they still need to shut down unless they pay for API access. And since most of these accounts don’t make their creators any money, few are willing to do so.
And it hasn’t only been the animal-posting bot accounts that have been affected. For example, the popular @MakeItAQuote account, which has more than 623,000 followers, was one of the first taken down in this purge when its API access was suspended last week. The account would automatically create a quote image of a user’s tweet when someone mentioned it in the reply to the post.
Bot accounts like @SbFramesInOrder (more than 182,000 followers) and @breaking_frames (more than 245,000 followers), which each posted frame-by-frame images of SpongeBob Squarepants and Breaking Bad episodes respectively, also announced they lost their API access.
@SbFramesInOrder shared it would be moving to Twitter alternative Bluesky. Meanwhile, @breaking_frames has decided to pay for Twitter API access until the account completed its goal of posting every frame from every episode of the show.
Other bot accounts that were just suspended include @ShitpostBot5000, which boasts nearly 300,000 followers, and @SongFinderBot, which has 118,000 followers.
The timing of the purge could possibly coincide with the recent suspension of the @ExplainThisBob automated account by Twitter last week. This account was personally called out by Musk himself, after it was revealed that the bot was being used to promote a cryptocurrency token. Musk then explained that automated accounts used for marketing purposes that mainly reply to other users’ tweets will be suspended from the platform.
@ExplainThisBob was permanently banned by Twitter a short time later.
Musk had previously tweeted out his support for the account in April, which had amassed 400,000 followers before it was suspended. @ExplainThisBob provided an AI-generated explanation of a tweet when a user would tag the account in the replies. It appears Musk was apparently unaware that the purpose of the account was to promote a memecoin.
The Twitter API allows the creators of these accounts to automate their posts so that the bot can post at regular intervals on its own or even interact with other users’ tweets. Twitter’s API used to be free, as developers who utilize it are often just driving more traffic and user engagement towards the Twitter platform itself.
However, shortly after Elon Musk acquired the company, Twitter announced it was killing its free API model and switching to a paid one. Paid tiers start at $ 100 per month for very limited access. Many third-party developers have shared that the limits on that tier make it nearly unusable for most applications. For months, the next tier up was priced at $ 42,000 per month, which resulted in many Twitter-based apps being forced to shut down as they could not afford the new expense.
Twitter has since rolled out a new lower priced tier at $ 5,000 per month, which is still quite expensive, especially if you’re a developer looking to create a free bot solely for Twitter users’ enjoyment.