Twitter's new data fees leave scientists scrambling for funding – or cutting research

Twitter has announced that it will allow bots that it deems provide beneficial content to continue unpaid access to the API, and that the company will offer a “paid basic tier,” but it’s unclear whether those will be helpful to researchers

Musk seems to be betraying the ideals of his purported inspiration Iain Banks Culture series.

Or maybe he is seeking to highlight, to a certain audience, how capitalism can hijack and retard tech progress.

The real scandal here is, that such Twitter metadata collecting and ‘research’ is even considered to be science.

Twitter is actually a business not a non profit. Pay for the data if you want it. Socialist lefties can ask Soros or somebody to pay.

Just because you don't understand it (or don't care to) doesn't mean it's not valid research. The data has many practical applications, e.g., identifying disaster-affected areas.

The real scandal here is, that such Twitter metadata collecting and ‘research’ is even considered to be science.

'Twitter data' is not universally representative of human thought as tweets have their own socio-cultural demographic bias.

Twitter is actually a business....

....where Elon now has a right to make it go down in flames. And Twitter is ant size compared to the rest of the social media offerings.

Twitter is actually a business...

Yes and Trump people should not complain about FB banning Trump since it's a private business too. A private business social media platform can ban anyone they want. It's a business and not a government. Tesla stock is really down the last 12 months. It's now worthy of only speculation like Bitcoin

Seems an odd article to write, essentially saying that I used to get a free product that I leveraged for professional gain from a private company,now they want to charge me for it, "woe is me!".

I am not a big fan of the latest developments in Twitter, bit this time I am supporting their decision. In this scientific area data is the king and Twitter is doing most of the job. It’s only fair to pay more to Twitter than to the scientists.

For example, most universities are slow-moving bureaucracies with a lot of red tape.

That is the key problem, not Twitter.

However, many researchers will be unable to cover the as yet unspecified costs of the paid service because they work on fixed or limited budgets.

which means this type of research is probably less important anyways.

 It’s only fair to pay more to Twitter

Twitter is not the only social media platform and I'm sure anyone can get the same garbage from others like FB....all for free. What is so special about Twitter and their data? Just pay a lot less (and perhaps free) to another garbage platform. Garbage is garbage. Elon didn't change anything. Just like Teslas are just cars.

Twitter is not the only social media platform and I'm sure anyone can get the same garbage from others like FB....all for free. What is so special about Twitter and their data?

The above article is dedicated to explain how Twitter is useful to make our life better. They even have examples. As for FB etc., I am not sure, but perhaps Twitter is more suited to share time critical condensed information, rather than long pointless stories.

I am not sure, but perhaps Twitter is more suited to share time critical condensed information, rather than long pointless stories.

OK, then short pointless stories. Proof:

“Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases!”

(Trump tweet)

What's the difference? It's still garbage. But you look on FOX News website and the FOX fans think Twitter is the best thing since Jesus Christ because they idolize over Elon for whatever reason. And Elon is getting burned financially from a very stupid business decision due to being thin skinned.

More time critical condensed information:

“Let’s take a closer look at that birth certificate. @BarackObama was described in 2003 as being ‘born in Kenya.’

(Trump)

Yes, good point this information from Twitter is going to save human life. Without Elon and Twitter we all die.

The real scandal here is, that such Twitter metadata collecting and ‘research’ is even considered to be science.

If the methods are valid and the assumptions can be proved your claim has no value, it is a completely valid form of science to study how people communicate using twitter and to observe how society is affected by the service.

If anything the scandal would be people without an understanding of science claiming recognized experts with long trajectories of published work don't know what science is.

which means this type of research is probably less important anyways.

Thinking that having a limited budget makes the research done less important makes absolutely no sense. Paying for references so authors can inflate their CVs do not automatically make their research more important.

In the World of Finance, Reuters, Bloomberg, etc. all make money by passing on the costs of subscribing to raw data to their user base. So, seems only Natural that Twitter does the same.

Perhaps users who contribute tweets which others pay to receive, should be rewarded monetarily ?