Python script to unfollow Twitter accounts that have not tweeted in the last 400 days

Unfollow_Quiet_Accounts.ipynb

{
 "cells": [
  {
   "cell_type": "markdown",
   "metadata": {},
   "source": [
    "# Unfollow Quiet Accounts\n",
    "\n",
    "This script unfollows all the Twitter users who have not tweeted in the last 400 days.\n",
    "\n",
    "See <https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/accounts-and-users/follow-search-get-users/api-reference> for details of the Twitter API calls used below."
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "import datetime\n",
    "import logging\n",
    "import sys\n",
    "\n",
    "def configure_logging(level=logging.DEBUG):\n",
    "    \"\"\"Configure the logging module.\n",
    "    \"\"\"\n",
    "    logging.basicConfig(\n",
    "        format='%(asctime)s.%(msecs)03d %(levelname)-7s %(message)s',\n",
    "        datefmt='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S',\n",
    "        level=level,\n",
    "        stream=sys.stderr)\n",
    "    \n",
    "configure_logging()"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "# Dependencies: pip install twitter python-dateutil\n",
    "import twitter\n",
    "import dateutil.parser"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "# Go to http://apps.twitter.com/, create an app, and fill in these values:\n",
    "consumer_key = 'aaaa'\n",
    "consumer_secret = 'bbbb'\n",
    "access_token = 'xxxx'\n",
    "access_token_secret = 'yyyy'"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "def twitter_login():\n",
    "    \"\"\"Connect to Twitter, returning a Twitter instance.\"\"\"\n",
    "    auth = twitter.OAuth(access_token, access_token_secret, consumer_key, consumer_secret)\n",
    "    return twitter.Twitter(auth=auth, retry=True)"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "tw = twitter_login()"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "def get_all_friends(tw):\n",
    "    \"\"\"Get list of all accounts followed by this account.\"\"\"\n",
    "    response = tw.friends.list(count=200)\n",
    "    friends = response['users']\n",
    "    cursor = response['next_cursor']\n",
    "    while cursor != 0:\n",
    "        response = tw.friends.list(count=200,\n",
    "                                   cursor=cursor)\n",
    "        friends.extend(response['users'])\n",
    "        cursor = response['next_cursor']\n",
    "    return friends"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "friends = get_all_friends(tw)\n",
    "len(friends)"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "# Eliminate friends with no status updates (I'm apparently not following them for their status)\n",
    "friends = [friend for friend in friends if 'status' in friend]\n",
    "len(friends)"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "def age_of_status(friend):\n",
    "    \"\"\"Determine the age of a tweet.\n",
    "    \n",
    "    Returns a datetime.timedelta value.\n",
    "    \"\"\"\n",
    "    created_at = dateutil.parser.parse(friend['status']['created_at'])\n",
    "    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)\n",
    "    return now - created_at"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "quiet_friends = [friend for friend in friends if age_of_status(friend).days > 400]"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": [
    "# Unfollow them\n",
    "for friend in quiet_friends:\n",
    "    logging.info(f\"Unfollowing {friend['id']} {friend['name']} ({friend['screen_name']})\")\n",
    "    tw.friendships.destroy(user_id=friend['id'])\n",
    "                 "
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": null,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [],
   "source": []
  }
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