Twitter is introducing a new ‘Automated Account’ labeling feature that allows accounts to self-identify as bots. The opt-in label is intended for what the company calls “good bots”, those that retweet news, public service announcements, or other updates. The feature does not help users identify “bad bots.” The new feature will be made available to over 500 developer accounts, such as @earthquakesSF, @vax_progress, @last100bills, @AltTxtReminder, @met_drawings, and @EmojiMashupBot.
Previously On...: In 2018, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Jack Dorsey was asked whether he believed users had a “right to know” if they were speaking to a bot or a human on Twitter’s platform. He agreed that Twitter should add more context to tweets and that the company was considering identifying bots, to the extent it could.
