This is an excellent point. Thanks for taking the time to add this!

If you’re using the Boost app, there is a toggle for it. You can find it by going to your profile and hitting the “Edit” button.

How would Lemmy identify who the bots are

They are meant to be self reporting/labeled by the creator. There is also a setting for that in the account page.

Note that these options will be slightly different to change on the webui but it can be done even if you aren’t a Boost user.

Maybe your instance is federating with someone new that does a lot of bot posting? Sometimes all it takes is one person on the instance to join a very active bot community and next thing you know members are seeing a ton of new bot posts.

Editing to add- On Lemmy you can turn off viewing bot accounts completely in your account settings if you don’t ever want to see them.