In September 2021, social media platform Twitter road-tested the new label that would identify “good bots” from the “bad bots.” The effort is to help Twitter users determine correct information from misleading ones.

For the uninitiated, not all “bots” are bad. Bot is a software program that performs automated, repetitive, pre-defined tasks — and tweeting about useful information is one of them.

“This will make it easier for people to differentiate automated from human-run accounts,” Twitter said. “Weare now expanding the feature globally.”

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Bot Twitter accounts will have an image of a bot displayed just below the username and with identifying label of “Automated by.” More details about the account shall be included in the account’s full bio.

All automated accounts will now have the option to add a new label to their Account Profile. The label will give people on Twitter additional information about the bot and its purpose to help them decide which accounts to follow, engage with, and trust.

“#GoodBots help people stay apprised of useful, entertaining, and relevant information — from fun emoji mashups to breaking news,” Twitter said. “There’s a whole community of developers that are working hard to build bots that are genuinely useful and interesting.”

The feature is now available to automated accounts that use the Twitter API.