Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Article (news)

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1764052793152cropped-kelly-sikkema--OqtbMSPN7c-unsplash.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Illustration of X. Kelly Sikkema, Unsplash</span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>WASHINGTON, United States — Elon Musk&#x27;s X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account&#x27;s location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform—including in support of Donald Trump.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2024/11/27/analyst-says-musk-uses-politics-on-x-to-further-his-own-interests-0145">Analyst says Musk uses politics on X &#x27;to further his own interests&#x27;</a></div><p>X&#x27;s head of product Nikita Bier launched the feature over the weekend, allowing users &quot;to see the country or region where an account is based,&quot; in a bid to boost transparency on a platform that tech experts say is rife with disinformation.</p><p>&quot;This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square,&quot; Bier wrote on X.</p><p>The launch triggered a wave of online sleuthing.</p><p>Almost immediately, the platform flooded with posts flagging dozens of right-wing internet personalities -- promoters of Trump&#x27;s &quot;Make America Great Again&quot; (MAGA) or &quot;America First&quot; political slogans -- whose location data showed they were in Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Eastern Europe.</p><p>Influential pro-Trump accounts that present themselves as US-based but actually operate overseas have circulated 31 false claims over the past 15 months -- including allegations of Democratic corruption -- according to a NewsGuard analysis using the location feature.</p><p>The feature also seemed to vindicate researchers who warned during last year&#x27;s US presidential election that a network of MAGA accounts -- posing as &quot;Trump-supporting independent women&quot; and using stolen photos of European models and influencers -- was operating overseas.</p><p>&quot;X&#x27;s new account info showed many of these &#x27;American&#x27; women were actually based in Thailand, with some tied to Myanmar,&quot; Benjamin Strick, the London-based director of investigations at the Centre for Information Resilience, told AFP.</p><p>&quot;Before this change we could show these profiles were fake, but we had almost no visibility on where they were run from, and often had to rely on &#x27;slip ups&#x27; posted by the accounts, time posting patterns and irregularities in language.</p><p>&quot;Now we can see that many of the accounts in this specific network are linked to Southeast Asia, which brings us closer to understanding who might be behind them,&quot; Strick added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;Rough edges&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Reflecting a hyperpolarized political climate, some right-wing personalities also pointed fingers at left-wing users seemingly posting from suspicious locations.</p><p>X, however, cautioned that the location data &quot;may not be accurate and can change periodically.&quot;</p><p>When users clicked on an account&#x27;s location, a pop up noted: &quot;The country or region that an account is based can be impacted by recent travel or temporary relocation.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/10/26/23/elon-musk-teases-audio-and-video-calls-at-x">Elon Musk teases audio and video calls at X</a></div><p>Some users may also be connected via a VPN that can mask their real location.</p><p>&quot;There are a few rough edges that will be resolved by Tuesday,&quot; Bier wrote after the feature&#x27;s launch.</p><p>Late Sunday, Bier said an &quot;upgrade&quot; was upcoming that will ensure &quot;accuracy will be nearly 99.99 percent.&quot;</p><p>Some users criticized the launch, warning that it could expose the locations of dissidents and protestors in autocratic states. Bier, however, said that for users in countries &quot;where speech has penalties,&quot; the feature includes privacy toggles that reveal only the region.</p><p>Soon after the launch, some apparent imposter accounts with vast followings were suddenly taken down.</p><p>One X handle posing as a fan account for Ivanka Trump, the president&#x27;s daughter, was suspended after users noted that its location was listed as Nigeria.</p><p>The account, which had amassed one million followers, regularly posted pro-Trump content as well as Islamophobic and anti-immigration messages.</p><p>As tech platforms scale back content moderation and reduce their reliance on human fact-checkers, disinformation researchers warn of a growing threat from Russian and Chinese actors seeking to sow political chaos in Western countries -- as well as from overseas influencers driven by the prospect of monetary gain.</p><p>The new feature &quot;shines a light on a fundamental problem with social media today: paid actors are deliberately inflaming difficult issues because controversy attracts attention,&quot; Amy Bruckman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a difficult situation, and I believe we need more trustworthy platforms that don&#x27;t allow people to behave badly.&quot;</p><p>Last month, X laid off half of its engineering team responsible for fighting influence operations, spam, and illegal content on the platform, reflecting a push to replace staff with artificial intelligence, The Information reported on Monday.</p><p>X did not respond to AFP&#x27;s request for comment.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JxMbjM0_i8g?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cq5-L1hd_Mo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>X launched the feature over the weekend, allowing users "to see the country or region where an account is based," in a bid to boost transparency.</p>

X launched the feature over the weekend, allowing users "to see the country or region where an account is based," in a bid to boost transparency.

Based in US or Nigeria? X erupts over location feature

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Based in US or Nigeria? X erupts over location feature

Anuj Chopra in Washington with Anna Malpas in London,

Agence France-Presse

Published November 25, 2025 02:43 PM PHT

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