• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Twitter introduces a new label that allows the ‘good bots’ to identify themselves

September 9, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will allow accounts to self-identify as bots by adding a label to their profile. This feature is designed to help people better differentiate between automated accounts — like bots that retweet the news, public service announcements, or other updates — from those operated by humans. It’s not, however, designed to help users identify the “bad bots” which are those that pose as people, often to spread misinformation or spam.

The company has been contemplating labeling bots for years.

In 2018, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was asked during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing 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 was considering identifying bots, to the extent that it could. However, Dorsey also pointed out it would be more difficult to identify bots that were using scripting to give the appearance of being a human, compared with those that were leveraging Twitter’s API.

Last year, the company finally solidified those plans, saying it would later introduce new features that would allow users to be able to distinguish between human-run accounts and those that were automated. When Twitter launched its account verification system in May, it reminded users that it would soon offer other ways to identify different types of accounts beyond the long-coveted blue badge — such as labels for bots.

Image Credits: Twitter

Today, Twitter says its new “Automated Account” label that identifies “good bots” will be made available to over 500 Developer Accounts. This group will test the feature and provide feedback before it’s opened up more broadly to all Twitter developers. As it’s still a test for the time being, the label won’t be required.

However, when Twitter updated its Developer Policy last year, it did ask developers to indicate in their account profile or bio whether the account was a bot, what the account is, and who’s behind it. These account labels would allow developers an easier way to comply with that policy rather than having to handwrite this information in their bio.

Twitter tells TechCrunch that based on what it learns during this experiment, it may decide to make adopting the label a requirement for all developers who run automated accounts in the future, once it becomes broadly available.

Image Credits: Twitter

To be clear, Twitter doesn’t have any problem with those who run good bots, as it understands how automation can allow accounts to update people with helpful, relevant, or, sometimes, just fun information. The company even celebrated a few of its favorite bots when announcing today’s developer news, including the public service account @earthquakesSF; a bot offering COVID-19 updates, @vax_progress; a bot that offers an ongoing breakdown of the last 100 bills introduced in Congress, @last100bills; an accessibility-focused bot, @AltTxtReminder; and others that just add value in their own way, like @met_drawings, which shares public domain works from The Met’s Drawings & Prints department, or the goofy @EmojiMashupBot, among others.

All these will be a part of the initial test group.

Twitter is also less concerned with how consumers may use automation to update their own accounts, perhaps by using third-party tools like IFTTT to post links or other content.

“You are ultimately responsible for the actions taken with your account, or by applications associated with your account,” Twitter’s policy advises Twitter users. “Before authorizing a third-party application to access or use your account, make sure you’ve thoroughly investigated the application and understand what it will do.” It also adds that Twitter users that adopt automation will still need to adhere to Twitter’s guidelines.

The company has been on a tear lately in terms of rolling out new features. Just this week, it has launched Communities, tests of emoji reactions, support for full-width photos and videos, and a way to “soft block” followers, among other things.

Twitter has not said how long the test would run before the Automated Account labels are rolled out more broadly.

Source Link Twitter introduces a new label that allows the ‘good bots’ to identify themselves

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. First trailer for Netflix’s Red Notice crams in massive star power and big action
  2. U.S. has no plans to release billions in Afghan assets, Treasury says
  3. Exclusive-Ericsson CEO to double down on China as 5G tussle rumbles on
  4. Cricket-Pope and Bairstow rebuild England innings after Yadav blows

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Unexpected Discovery Hints We Might Be Inside A Black Hole
  • Why Are People Talking About This “Square Structure” Captured On Mars?
  • The World Has Five Oceans, Not Four – Discover The Latest One
  • Just 80 Percent Of People Can Perceive This Optical Illusion And No One Knows Why
  • Something Other Than Geological Processes Or Humans Created These Caves
  • Can Black Holes Lead To Other Places In The Universe?
  • The Devastating Communication Problem Facing Light-Speed Travel
  • The Great British Pet Massacre: One Of The Saddest Tragedies Of 1939
  • Would A Vacuum-Filled Balloon Float?
  • Queen Ant Produces Babies Of 2 Different Species, For The First Time Ever We Have A Complete Map Of Brain Activity, And Much More This Week
  • Yes, Your Attention Span Might Have Shortened, But That Might Not Be A Terrible Thing
  • This May Be The First Known Portrait Of A Viking – And It’s A Sexually Rampant “Beard Fondler”
  • The Largest Snake In Captivity Is A Humongous 7.7-Meter Reticulated Python Called Medusa
  • Poo Power: How Animal Dung Could Unlock New Antibiotic Treatments
  • Perfectly Preserved Dinosaur Tail Found Inside 99-Million-Year-Old Amber Was Mistaken For A Plant
  • Why Aren’t Full Photos Of The Milky Way Real? A NASA Analyst Explains The Obvious
  • Freaky Ratfish Have Teeth Growing Out Of Their Foreheads, And They Use Them For Love
  • The Largest Turtle Ever Known To Have Lived Was An Absolute Unit
  • “It Literally Leapt Out Of The Rock At Us”: How Violent Storms Led To The Extraordinary Preservation Of Baby Pterosaurs
  • This Is The Reason Why Earth’s Core Exists, And It’s More Interesting Than You Might Think
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version