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Elon Musk’s X faced significant backlash after introducing a feature that displays users’ locations, revealing the countries or regions where accounts are based. This move unveiled what some describe as international troll farms and influence campaigns, including efforts supporting Donald Trump.
X’s product chief, Nikita Bier, rolled out the new feature over the weekend to enhance transparency by showing the country or region associated with each account. Tech analysts note that this platform, often criticized for misinformation, will benefit from increased visibility into account origins.
Bier emphasized that this marks a critical step toward safeguarding the integrity of what’s often called the digital “town square.” The feature quickly sparked widespread online investigation.
Almost instantly, many users posted findings showing numerous right-wing personalities supporting Trump, often claiming to be based in the U.S., but whose location data indicated they were in Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Eastern Europe.
Over the past year and a quarter, influential pro-Trump pages posing as American have circulated false claims, including accusations of Democratic corruption, with location data suggesting they operate overseas. A NewsGuard analysis that employed the new feature revealed many of these profiles were actually based in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Myanmar.
Benjamin Strick, the investigations director at the Centre for Information Resilience in London, explained that previously, researchers could identify fake profiles but lacked clarity on their actual locations. Now, linking accounts to Southeast Asia helps advance understanding of their true origins.
Some right-wing users also pointed fingers at left-leaning accounts, claiming suspicious locations. However, X warned that location data isn’t always precise and can change due to travel or the use of VPNs that mask actual locations.
Bier mentioned that some technical issues were expected to be resolved soon, with an upgrade planned to improve accuracy to nearly 99.99%. Critics warned that revealing locations could endanger dissidents and protesters in authoritarian countries, but X stated privacy controls are in place, especially for users in regions where free speech risks are high.
Following the unveiling, some impersonator accounts with large followings were suddenly removed. For example, an account pretending to represent Ivanka Trump was suspended after being flagged for claiming to be based in Nigeria; despite its high follower count, it posted politically charged and inflammatory content.
As social media platforms cut back on content moderation and reduce reliance on human fact-checkers, disinformation experts warn that foreign actors, particularly Russian and Chinese entities, pose escalating threats to Western democracies. These actors often seek to manipulate and destabilize through influence campaigns motivated by profit or ideological motives.
Amy Bruckman, a professor at Georgia Tech, noted that the feature exposes a core issue: paid influence agents intentionally stir controversy because engagement drives attention. She stressed the need for more trustworthy social platforms that discourage malicious behavior.
Recently, X laid off half of its engineering team tasked with combating influence operations, spam, and illegal content, shifting focus toward automation with artificial intelligence. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
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