Elon Musk’s social media network has made a sweeping new change, now allowing users to see where each X account is based.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced the changes in October, saying it would ‘secure the integrity of the global town square’.
But it appears to have unmasked dozens of foreign accounts masquerading as pro-American.
One account, called ‘MAGA NATION’, boasts hundreds of thousands of followers, often sharing pro-Donald Trump narratives and sparking discourse.
But the new feature has revealed that, unlike what the person is claiming, they aren’t a red-blooded American. Rather, the account operates out of a non-EU Eastern European country.
Another, called ‘America First’, appears to be based in Bangladesh.
Other Trump supporter and MAGA accounts sharing photos of models who allegedly support Trump are based out of Thailand.
Many of the photos of these ‘pro-Trump’ women are stolen from European influencers – but the damage from these accounts is already done.
Even the US Department of Homeland Security’s X account was revealed to be based in Israel, but they didn’t seem to understand the severity of the situation.
Professor Harith Alani, Director of the Knowledge Media Institute, told Metro that researchers have been trying to analyse X posts for misinformation through identifying location for years, but it’s a tricky process.
He points out: ‘For sophisticated users or state-sponsored actions, they would use something like a VPN, and they could easily get around this identification of place. So, I don’t think the new feature is going to solve anything in terms of misinformation.
‘But this doesn’t mean it can’t help at all. If we start to see a better picture in terms of where misinformation is circulating in different parts of the world and whether things are getting more traction here than there, it would help not only us understand the landscape, but also we might have a better idea of how to counter misinformation.’
Even if many of these accounts are proven to be bad actors posing as certain nationalities, Professor Alani says he isn’t certain that it will change people’s minds.
‘Research shows that people are always trying to confirm their biases,’ he said.
‘Even if they discover that the person they’ve been trusting and following is not from where they appear to be, they will simply find another account which is from the country and still saying the same thing.
‘We as humans are very good at convincing ourselves of things even if all the evidence points in the other direction.’
What implications does revealing the location of social media accounts have for users’ privacy?
Some have raised worries that the new location feature could expose dissidents or people posting in countries where free speech is severely limited.
But the location feature does not expose any in-depth information about the location to users, and they can choose if it’s by country or region.
IP addresses can generally be found if someone isn’t using a VPN, but if they are, it’s harder to find someone’s exact address or location – making these worries a bit less.
Professor Alani says he’s curious about what X’s intentions are in bringing forth this new update.
‘Is this a real move towards transparency and trustworthiness? If so, would location be the best way to do this?’ he asks.
‘I don’t think it can be trusted 100%, but it would probably give us a better idea about misinformation than what we can see now.’
Where can I find the location feature?
If you go to your profile, or any other profile, click the portion of the bio reading ‘Joined ____’.
There, it should show you what date you joined and where your account is based.
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