X recently began rolling out a new feature that seemingly revealed many right-wing “America First” accounts are actually based outside the United States. Except the data might not be reliable.
While X’s new “About This Account” feature includes information about when a user joined and how they downloaded the app, geographic location is getting the most attention by far.
Posting a gallery of MAGA accounts that are apparently based in Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Thailand, left-wing influencer Micah Erfan wrote, “This is total armageddon for the online right.”
Many of the accounts raising eyebrows, like the apparently Pakistan-based @American, are relatively small, though others have hundreds of thousands of followers.
X’s director of product Nikita Bier said Saturday that the feature is being rolled out globally, describing this as “an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.” However, some users have complained that their listed location is wildly inaccurate. Bier acknowledged that the “data was not 100% for old accounts” and suggested that “a few rough edges … will be resolved by Tuesday.”
The Verge noted that while there are definitely rage-bait accounts and troll farms located outside the U.S., many of the listed locations seem highly questionable, with the confusion likely due to travel, global teams, VPNs, or old IP addresses.