Elon Musk's X has introduced a new feature called 'About This Account,' which reveals where an account was based when it joined the site. The feature has inadvertently exposed many popular MAGA and right-wing influencer accounts as being based outside the United States, in countries such as India, Russia, and Nigeria.
Democratic influencer Harry Sisson described the discovery as 'easily one of the greatest days on this platform,' according to the Daily Beast. He added that seeing these accounts exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States was a complete vindication of Democrats who had been warning about this issue.
For example, the account MAGANationX, which describes itself as a 'Patriot Voice for We The People,' was actually started in Eastern Europe. Another account, 'MAGA Scope,' which uses an image of President Donald Trump and an American flag emoji, was found to have been started in Nigeria in 2024.
However, there are questions over the accuracy of the information, as users pointed out that using a VPN could result in an origin reflecting the VPN's location rather than the user's actual country. Nikita Bier, head of X's product development, acknowledged that the feature had 'a few rough edges' and said the company planned to resolve any discrepancies caused by VPNs.
The feature was briefly removed a few hours after going live, leading to speculation that the change was a reaction to the discovery of the right-wing accounts' origins. It has since been restored. Left-wing influencer Micah Erfan noted that 'like half of their large accounts were foreigners posing as Americans all along.'
Last year, the Department of Justice found that some popular right-wing influencers were unwittingly working for a Russian influence operation. The Centre for Information Resilience also discovered during the 2024 election cycle that more than a dozen accounts had stolen photos of European models to pose as young, attractive Trump supporters.
