Many MAGA Accounts on X Aren't Based in America

They go by names like @TRUMP_ARMY or @MAGANationX, and their verified accounts proudly display portraits of President Trump, voter rallies, and American flags. And they're constantly posting about US politics to their followers, sounding like diehard fans of the president. But after a weekend update to the social media platform X, it's now clear that the owners of these accounts, and many others, are located in regions such as South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

• Elon Musk's X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts posting in support of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the United States raising concerns about foreign influence on US politics, the AP reports.

• Researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation, identified several popular accounts—purportedly run by Americans interested in politics – that instead were based in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa. The accounts were leading disseminators of some misleading and polarizing claims about US politics, including ones that said Democrats bribed the moderators of a 2024 presidential debate.
• Nikita Bier, X's head of product, announced Saturday that the social media platform is rolling out an "About This Account" tool, which lets users see the country or region where an account is based. To find an account's location, tap or click the signup date displayed on the profile. "This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square," Bier wrote. He said Sunday that after an update to the tool, it would be 99.99% accurate, though this could not be independently verified. Accounts, for instance, can use a virtual private network, or VPN, to mask their true location. On some accounts, there's a notice saying the location data may not be accurate, either because the account uses a VPN or because some internet providers use proxies automatically, without action by the user.

• Some of the accounts supported slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk as well as President Trump's children. Many of the accounts were adorned with US flags or made comments suggesting they were American. An account called "@BarronTNews_," for instance, is shown as being located in "Eastern Europe (Non-EU)," even though the display location on its profile says "Mar A Lago." NewsGuard also found evidence that some X users are spreading misinformation about the location feature itself, incorrectly accusing some accounts of being operated from abroad when they're actually used by Americans.
• It's not always clear what the motives of the accounts. While some may be state actors, it's likely that many are financially motivated, posting commentary, memes and videos to draw engagement. Rolling Stone notes that Musk introduced a subscription service that pays users who boost engagement, and the fact that the accounts are based abroad suggests "they have spent years posting this material less out of ideological motivations than for the money, accelerating the polarization of the American electorate in the process."

• Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, tells the AP that the usefulness of the location feature "probably peaks now that it was just exposed, and bad actors will adapt. Meta has had similar information for a while and no one would suggest that misinformation has been eliminated from Facebook because of it."
• Users were divided over the new ability to see an account's location information, with some questioning whether it went too far. "Isn't this kind of an invasion of privacy?" one X user wrote. "No one needs to see this info."