X’s new “About your account” location feature has exposed numerous political accounts—especially pro-Trump profiles—as being based outside the U.S., raising both misinformation concerns and privacy questions, even as experts caution the tool can be bypassed.
X’s rollout of its “About your account” feature, which displays the country or region an account is based in, has revealed that many large pro-Trump profiles—such as “MAGA NATION,” “America First,” and “Dark MAGA”—are actually operating from countries including Eastern Europe, Bangladesh and Thailand, often using stolen photos to appear American. Even the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s X account was shown to be based in Israel.
While Professor Harith Alani notes that “for sophisticated users or state-sponsored actions, they would use something like a VPN,” he says the feature may still help researchers understand how misinformation spreads. However, he warns that “people are always trying to confirm their biases,” meaning exposure of an account’s true location may not change minds. Privacy concerns have also surfaced, though X only displays broad regions, and users can choose the level of disclosure.