Twitter has updated its policies when it comes to bot accounts, and in particular the fact that developers need to clearly label whether an account is in fact a bot.

The policy update was announced yesterday in a blog post, where the social media platform also confirmed a number of changes for developers to take note of, especially if they’re wanting to utilise the tools that Twitter has made available to them.

“Not all bots are bad. In fact, high-quality bots can enhance everyone’s experience on Twitter. Our new policy asks that developers clearly indicate (in their account bio or profile) if they are operating a bot account, what the account is, and who the person behind it is, so it’s easier for everyone on Twitter to know what’s a bot – and what’s not,” explained Twitter about this specific aspect of the policy update.

With bots being a rather divisive element of Twitter, and social media in general, the addition of this updated policy will at least provide users with a bit more transparency as to the types of accounts they are interacting with.

The one piece missing from al of this is when the policy will take effect, with no specific date mentioned by Twitter. Airing on the cautious side, we’d say that developers need to act swiftly in labelling their bot accounts.

That said it remains to be seen what kinds of repercussions not labelling a bot account will have. We suspect that incorrect or failure to label will result in limited functionality of the account, so developers are better off not taking the risk.

Will this new move curb the amount of spam that bot accounts are often responsible for? We’ll have to wait and see.

[Image – Photo by Rock’n Roll Monkey on Unsplash]