Foreign Operatives Revealed: New X Feature Identifies Wave of Accounts Behind Misinformation Push

Townhall 

Elon Musk’s company, X, recently launched a new feature on Friday that reveals the country of origin for every user account. The update is already raising eyebrows, offering a glimpse into how foreign-operated accounts may be using the platform to push misinformation on what has become one of the most politically consequential social media sites.

Many of the accounts based in foreign countries are pretending to represent the America First agenda.

For example, an account called "@1776General_" which describes the owner as a "constitutionalist, patriot and ethnically American," with over 140,000 followers, is based in Turkey. The owner posted that they work in international business, and are currently in Turkey, although that claim is unverifiable. 

Another account called "@AmericanVoice__" had over 200,000 followers, but was found to based in South Asia. The owner simply deleted their account.

Other accounts that have claimed to be journalists reporting on the war in Gaza were found to be misleading as well, with accounts claiming to be those of "Gaza-based journalists" being based in countries like Poland, Egypt, or East Asia and the Pacific.

X's head of product, Nikita Bier, said the feature will help people better identify misinformation.

"When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity. This is critical for staying informed about important issues happening in the world. Part of this is showing new information in accounts, including the country an account is located in, among other things," Bier wrote. 

Representatives from X said its new feature could be vulnerable to those using a VPN, who could mask a user's true location. In those cases, X added a warning that the user could be using a VPN, next to the listed location.