This article was published on February 1, 2017

Twitter built a bot to help highlight Black History Month


Twitter built a bot to help highlight Black History Month

February is Black History Month in the USA, so Twitter is celebrating with a new bot created by the @Blackbirds team – Twitter’s black employee resource group. In fact, Twitter says its the first ever bot created by an employee resource group at the company.

You can interact with the bot in a few ways by sending it a Direct Message. In Twitter’s own words:

  • Today in #BlackHistory shares one of three lesser known black history facts of the day.

  • #ForTheCause highlights community events in major cities like New York, San Francisco and Atlanta.

  • #SelfCare provides tips and support to help people put themselves first.

  • #ForTheCulture highlights notable moments and content from black creators and driving voices on Twitter.

The #ForTheCulture is Twitter’s primary theme for the celebration, meant to be an inclusive hashtag highlighting Black Americans past and present. Along with the bot, Twitter is also relaunching its emoji for #BlackHistoryMonth and #BHM. Meanwhile the company is also creating a mural in New York City.

When you open up a Direct Message conversation, you’ll have the option to select any of the four above options. Selecting #ForTheCause, for instance, will start a conversation helping you find related activities in your area:

It’s a pretty barebones level of interaction, mind you, but it’s enough to get people thinking about the cause, which is what really matters. If you want to educate yourself a bit, go ahead and send a DM to @Blackbirds.

 

 

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