Will Twitter’s public service accounts finally meet their fate? After prohibiting, charging, temporarily authorizing and finally “definitively” prohibiting free access to its programming interface (API), which allows, among other things, to publish tweets automatically, the social network finally announced a special exemption for public information . services.
“One of the most important use cases for the Twitter programming interface has always been for public utility. Government or utility accounts that tweet weather alerts, warnings, and emergency alerts will be able to use the free programming interface for their emergencies,” TwitterDev said. , one of the official accounts of the platform, on May 2.
In France, this situation affects VigiMeteoFrance in particular, the official Twitter account of Météo France, dedicated to weather monitoring to warn populations in the event of storms, storms or other meteorological phenomena. At the international level, it is, for example, the National Weather Service of the United States, or LastQuake, a service that allows alerting about earthquakes.
Gray area
However, for now, Twitter has not provided any information regarding the implementation of this free. If TwitterDev indicates that it will be offered to “verified” accounts, some official accounts, such as VigiMeteoFrance, have not yet received their official gray badge indicating that it is a government service, unlike the US National Weather Service. In instance, the contours of this new regulation have not been concretely explained.
Meteo France indicated to Tech&Co, this Thursday, May 4, that it could still use the API to automatically publish its weather surveillance maps on its Twitter account, its access not having been revoked.
But in the time that elapses between obtaining the gray badge and free access to the programming interface, the cell phone is in a status quo without having more information from the social network.
The removal of free access to the programming interface – API, in computer terms, had been carried out in connection with Elon Musk’s effort to counter fake accounts on the platform.
However, a large number of accounts, including utility accounts, use this device for informational purposes. These automatic accounts considered “useful” were then reinforced in the face of the prohibitive prices offered by the platform.
Source: BFM TV
