Not all bots are bad, but they all need to be identified on Twitter. This is one of the new rules that result from updating the social network developers policy for accounts that use automated publishing tools. In general, the goal is to have an easier understanding of how to be successful when building with Twitter and, in this way, guarantee the safety of users.
The announcement was made by the head of API policy, Donald Hamblock, who recognizes that the previous rules, and as they were written, made understanding the measures difficult. So, since this Tuesday, Twitter has decided to launch a list of four sections, instead of the old eight, simpler and more practical.
Aiming to give more power to developers who work with Twitter, and especially at a time when the social network is working on the next generation of the Twitter API, one of the new rules obliges developers to "clearly identify" if an account is a bot and who is associated with that account. "This makes it easier for everyone to know who is a bot on Twitter and who is not," writes Donald Hamblock in the publication.
Bots have been a sensitive topic on the social network. Even in 2017, for example, Twitter discovered Russian bots with suspicious activity in the US presidentials and, at the time, Colin Crowell, vice president for public policy on Twitter, believed that this would be "just the tip of the iceberg".
In addition to this new feature, the updated Twitter policy allows, for example, the social network API to be used to study academic investigations on the platform, especially those related to spam and certain types of abuse. This is provided that it is not used for commercial purposes. Still within the scope of university education, the platform now guarantees that researchers will be able to share an unlimited number of tweet or user IDs, if they do so also on behalf of the study institution and without any commercial purpose.
The social network also updated the language of the Twitter Developer Agreement, in order to be aligned with the new policy for programmers. The decision comes after in 2018 Twitter introduced a review process on the rules for developers to improve the security of the platform.
Since then, the company has reviewed more than a million developer applications for API access, 75% of which have been approved. With regard to the last six months, the social network guarantees, in the same publication, to have suspended around 144,000 apps, in order to improve the "health" of the platform and eliminate people with malicious intent. In addition, it redesigned the application for developers.
