How Elon Musk's latest change could make Twitter more expensive for advisors

Elon Musk’s latest move to turn Twitter profitable could make it more expensive for financial advisors to use the social media website.  

The company, which the billionaire acquired in October for $44 billion, announced just after 1:00 a.m. on Thursday that it would end free access to the Twitter application programming interface, or API, next Thursday. All third-party companies with products that rely on Twitter’s data — for example, tools financial advisors use to archive tweets for compliance — will have to start paying for access.  

Despite announcing the change just eight days before it goes into effect, Twitter hasn't specified how much access will cost, apart from saying there will be “a paid basic tier.” Such short notice is “extremely abnormal” and poses a challenge for companies using Twitter’s data, said Alan Moore, CEO of XY Planning Network, which provides a proprietary archiving tool, XY Archive, exclusively to its member advisors.

“We haven't allocated budget for this new fee, nor do we know how much we need to be asking for,” Moore said in an email. “We may have to make changes to how we use their API and a week isn't a lot of time to do that.”

While Moore is confident that the XY Archive team, which uses agile software development practices, can make the changes in time, other companies that release code quarterly could face a lapse in services as they race to catch up with Twitter’s timeline.

Ultimately this will raise the cost of providing social media archiving services to financial advisors. Providers will either eat the cost or pass it along to advisors, Moore said.

Financial advisors are required to archive all marketing communications, which includes any activity from social media accounts used to promote their business.

“Regulators expect to see an uneditable archive of all tweets sent, comments made, tweets deleted, etc.,” Moore said. “The only way to ensure all activity is archived is to use the API that is provided by Twitter.”

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Digital archiving technology Smarsh is in the early stages of trying to figure out how Twitter’s new pricing will impact customers but declined to comment further. Hearsay Social did not respond to a request for comment.

The decision to shut down free access to the Twitter API could lead to thousands of developers shutting down projects, which would affect hundreds of thousands of people who use those tools to optimize how they use the social media site, according to Ars Technica.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion Tweets, with billions more every week,” the company posted. “Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us. We’ll be back with more details on what you can expect next week.”

Several developers and entrepreneurs used the social media site to protest the decision.

“Developers add value to Twitter by helping people create content. They add value to the core service,” said Tom Coates, a product developer who has worked with tech and digital media companies. “Having said that, it is not unreasonable to want to find a way to charge those developers who extract more value than they contribute.

“However, one week’s notice and no indication of pricing shows Twitter is chaotic and unreliable. No one’s going to build a business on that,” Coates added.

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