X social media has applied a new update “About this account” that raises questions about the authenticity of a slew of popular political accounts. The new update gives users more context into where an account was created, what country it’s actively operating from, and if the username has been changed.
After the feature’s release, X users reportedly found that many high-influence, conservative, and MAGA-associated accounts—some with tens of thousands of followers—were based in other countries.
Expert Analysis and Transparency
Chris Krebs, a CBS News contributor and the former head of the federal government’s cybersecurity agency SISA, praised the platform for the development, saying X “deserves a lot of credit” for the rollout of this transparency feature.
Krebs said the feature puts a spotlight on the “rage economy” that thrives on social media, including X. He said the platform has taken on a “rightward shift” over the last couple of years and this ecosystem is being exploited by foreign-based accounts. Very often, these overseas actors are in it for monetization, leveraging the MAGA movement for all its worth-only for “the dollars and cents”-and aren’t really invested in any underlying political philosophy. Examples of countries where these accounts are based include Nigeria, Moldova, and Nepal.
This focus on income generation via political content is part of a longstanding concern involving foreign actors, including security services, “grifters” who target and exploit the public’s demand for rage-inducing content. This type of material is designed to activate the brain’s “fight-or-flight mechanism”. Though some suggest the public is “gullible,” others argue that people simply seek out and consume more of the content that aligns with their current worldview.
X’s Motivation and Future Challenges
Sources say, in order to institute this feature, it wasn’t necessarily a matter of X having to technically develop new capabilities. In the past year, X has reportedly taken a number of steps aimed at increasing transparency and reducing the prevalence of scammers and bots. Because anyone making money on the platform must go through verification and provide credit card information, X already had information on where those various accounts were located. The head of product at the platform, Nikita, had promised this feature would be implemented. Concerns at X reportedly involve not just foreign security or intelligence services, but grifters taking advantage of the platform.
Krebs added that such a rise in transparency might result in several of the outed accounts losing their influence. He advised users to use what was at their disposal on the internet, to take “nine seconds even” in order to scrutinize what was being presented and why it was appearing.
Looking ahead, the challenge is one in which X’s trust and safety team is expected to be involved for several years. The issue is likely to remain a “cat and mouse game,” especially during “heightened political moments” such as the 2026 midterms and the 2028 election, which Krebs called the “Super Bowl of elections”.
