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Twitter just took a major step toward making it easier for researchers to understand the conversations happening on its platform. The company introduced a new version of its API that will allow researchers to access wide swaths of public Twitter data, along with advanced search features.
The new Academic Research track could have major implications for researchers studying election security, misinformation and other big issues affecting Twitter. While the company has previously made this kind of data available to developers, it was prohibitively expensive for most researchers. But with the new API, approved researchers will be able access a full history of all public conversations on Twitter, as well as advanced search and filtering tools for free.