RIP Twitter API: A eulogy to its vast research contributions

Abstract

Since 2006, Twitter's APIs have been rich sources of data for researchers studying social phenomena such as misinformation, public communication, crisis response, and political behavior. However, in 2023, Twitter began heavily restricting data access, dismantling its academic access program, and setting the Enterprise API price at $42,000 per month. Lacking funds to pay this fee, academics are scrambling to continue their research. This study systematically tabulates the number of studies, citations, publication dates, disciplines, and major topics of research using Twitter data between 2006 and 2024. While we cannot know exactly what will be lost now that Twitter data is cost-prohibitive, we can illustrate its research value during the years it was available. A search of eight databases found that between 2006 and 2024, a total of 33,306 studies were published in 8,914 venues, with 610,738 citations across 16 disciplines. Major disciplines include social science, engineering, data science, and public health. Major topics include information dissemination, tweet credibility, research methodologies, event detection, and human behavior. Twitter-based studies increased by a median of 25% annually from 2006 to 2023, but following Twitter's decision to charge for data, the number of studies dropped by 13%. Much of the 2024 research likely used data collected before the API shutdown, suggesting further decline ahead. This trend highlights a growing loss of empirical insight and access to real-time, public communication-raising concerns about the long-term consequences for studying society, technology, and global events in an era increasingly connected by social media.