Twitter bot corrects people who say “illegal immigrant”

Two US-based journalists have created a bot that suggests alternative terms to people who tweet the phrase “illegal immigrant”.

News site writers Patrick Hogan and Jorge Rivas said that the Twitter bot, which uses the handle @DroptheIBot, suggests that tweeters use the terms “undocumented immigrant” or “unauthorised immigrant” instead.

The phrase “illegal immigrant” has drawn criticism for being reductive, and dehumanising people. In 2013, the Associated Press dropped the term from its style book, telling users that the word “illegal” should only describe an action, not a person.

“Legal experts say that ‘illegal immigrant’ is just not accurate,” Hogan and Rivas said in an article for Fusion.

The bot runs once every 10 minutes, and never replies to the same user twice to avoid spamming people. So far, reactions to the bot’s suggestion have been largely negative, though some users said they found it helpful.