On the internet, humans are not its only population. In just about every single corner and in almost every popular platforms, bots live side-by-side with humans.
In fact, bots' population has surpassed humans since 2014.
And particularly on Twitter, bots have made a safe and comfortable home. While they can be made to behave just like humans, where they can have their own profile picture and post new tweets or retweet others, there are times that bots can be malicious, in which they are created to amplify the voices of propaganda, hate speech, and fake news, for example.
The term "bot" can often have a negative connotation, but bots can actually be helpful.
For example, it can be made to automatically tweet out useful information like COVID-19 updates, earthquake alerts, and more.
These bots are considered the "good bots."
And Twitter wants these good bots to show themselves, and present themselves as useful as they are.
To do that, Twitter introduces a feature, where automated Twitter accounts can self-identify themselves by adding the label to their profile.
The label that is shown right underneath the account’s name and @username, is a small, robot icon that appears next to the words 'Automated by' followed by the name of the account’s operator. When the bots tweet, their automated status will also be visible in users’ timelines.
This should help users differentiate automated accounts from human-run accounts.
Twitter said that developers can add the label to their bot accounts, and can add more information about the bot, in order to help users decide which accounts to follow, engage with, and trust.
Developers need to opt in to have this label appear for their bots.
These "good bot" labeling system was first introduced in a test back in September 2021.
At that time, Twitter tested with some 500 Twitter developer accounts who own bots on Twitter.
After months of testing, Twitter is finally making the feature available to all automated account holders.
Twitter described good bots as "good bots" because Twitter doesn't want bots to lurk and blend in disguise. Twitter wants bots on its platform to follow the rules, reveal themselves, if they want to be part of the "good bots."
The company once said that "high-quality" bot accounts would need to make it clear they weren't manually being run by someone. Under that rule, operators of certain bot accounts need to state that they're automated and display the name of the person behind them.
And this labeling system should add another layer of transparency.
According to the company, this update comes as a result of a research that found that people wanted more context around the accounts they interact with. And this label here should give the "good bots" a way to increase their legitimacy.
"We’re all looking for ways to cleanse our timelines these days - and there are a whole slew of 'good bots' on Twitter that can help us do that. Good bots can help people find useful, entertaining and relevant information every day [...] There’s a whole community of developers that are working hard to build bots that are genuinely useful and interesting."