In California, bots will need to identify themselves thanks to a new bill just signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
The measure bans automated accounts from pretending to be real people in order to "incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election," effective July 1, 2019.
Automated accounts will still be able to interact with users, but they will have to disclose that they are not, in fact, humans, according to NBC.
Bots were a big problem during the 2016 election and something platforms like Twitter have been trying to combat.
But many of these bot campaigns originate overseas—particularly in Russia, according to US officials—so it's unlikely a California law will deter foreign actors from unleashing their bots.
The bot bill, meanwhile, was somewhat overshadowed by the net neutrality legislation Gov. Brown signed this week.
It basically adopts the now-defunct Obama-era internet regulations and applies them to California, which prompted a lawsuit from the Trump administration. »
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