In response to last week’s announcement by Twitter that the platform will no longer allow researchers to access its API, the Knight Institute along with more than 83 internet freedom and tech policy organizations and 450 individual researchers, journalists, and advocates called on Twitter to keep its API free and accessible to public-interest investigations. The effort was spearheaded by the recently formed Coalition for Independent Technology Research, of which the Knight Institute is a member.

The new policy, set to go into effect on February 9, would severely disrupt thousands of projects studying the global network and its impact on society.

Read the full letter here.

Read the Institute’s policy paper proposing a legal safe harbor for research and newsgathering projects focused on platforms here.