In this bonus episode, I geek out with an old friend, David Troy. We talk about Twitter and the announcement today that they are shutting down free access to the API, the Twitter-alternative, Mastodon, along with some geopolitics and other things.
From Ars Technica: Cash-strapped Twitter to start charging developers for API access next week
Twitter blocking this access to the API could shut down a lot of the very research I’ve been looking at for the podcast. Twitter is the most common source for large-scale social media data for research. We don’t know yet on what terms they will offer this data for university researchers.
In the middle of the night, Twitter made an announcement that disappointed a wide range of developers whose research, bots, and apps depend on free access to the platform’s API to function.
… Twitter provided very short notice before removing free access to the Twitter API, which could also block academics and activists from continuing their research on the platform, including gathering valuable insights into how the platform is managing misinformation.
Ars Technica
This episode was record February 2, 2023 and is being released nearly unedited for timeliness.
David Troy is a serial technology entrepreneur and community builder. He founded regional ISP and hosting provider ToadNet. He developed Twittervision as well as open source voice-over-IP systems. He founded Beehive Baltimore, Baltimore Angels and the TEDxMidAtlantic conferences. These days he is an Investigative journalist addressing threats to democracy.
Dave Troy site: https://about.davetroy.com/
Get a Mastodon account: https://toad.social/auth/sign_up
Donate to support toad.socal: https://donorbox.org/help-support-toad-social
Find me on Mastodon: @DavidBeckemeyer@toad.social
Find David Troy: @davetroy@toad.social