Twitter Labels ‘Good’ Bots
Twitter automated accounts will be able to display a label that helps differentiate them from those managed by humans. This is a new badge that is optional at the moment, but it will help to better classify the types of users within the social network.
These ID tags show a small icon of a robot and the word ‘Automated’ next to it. They appear below the account name in each tweet. In the user profile you can also see who is behind them.
The option to show automated accounts went live as part of a pilot experience late last year, but is now officially available in all territories. “It is the result of an investigation that revealed that people wanted more context around the accounts with which they interact,” they explain from Twitter. The company has also created a hashtag, #BotsBuenos, to promote this new feature.
According to Twitter, ‘good’ bots are those that share useful or relevant information and are intended to genuinely improve the Twitter experience. Among the examples, the company mentions @RecordameBot, a bot programmed to remember tweets on a certain date, or @BotAemet, an account that tells the weather in a municipality the next day.
In recent years, however, Twitter has had to carry out several periodic purges of maliciously created automated accounts, usually focused on propaganda and disinformation campaigns. A 2017 University of Southern California study estimated the number of automated accounts on the platform at more than 48 million, most dedicated to promoting other accounts or generating commentary around political issues.
Twitter has taken several measures in recent years to curb these types of accounts, including requiring you to enter a valid phone number or email when creating a new account or algorithms that downplay comments from automated users.
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