Elon Musk's social media platform, X, has rolled out a new transparency feature that is revealing surprising truths about the origins of some of its most influential political accounts. The tool, called 'about this account', became available to all users on Friday and is already exposing numerous high-profile Maga personalities who present as patriotic Americans but are actually operating from overseas.
How the 'About This Account' Tool Works
The newly implemented feature allows anyone to view key information about X accounts, including their operating location, join date, username change history, and how the X app was downloaded. This move towards greater transparency has immediately uncovered discrepancies between where accounts claim to be based and their actual locations.
As soon as the update launched, users began investigating prominent right-wing influencers and discovered many were being operated from countries including Russia, Nigeria, India, Thailand, and Eastern Europe, despite presenting themselves as American patriots.
Notable Cases Uncovered
Several high-following accounts have been exposed through the new tool. MAGANationX, which boasts nearly 400,000 followers and describes itself as a 'Patriot Voice for We The People', was revealed to be operating from Eastern Europe according to the Daily Beast.
Another significant discovery was IvankaNews, a fan account for Ivanka Trump with approximately one million followers that frequently posts about illegal immigration, Islam, and support for Donald Trump. The transparency feature showed this account is actually based in Nigeria.
Additional cases quickly emerged across social media platforms. Dark Maga, with around 15,000 followers, operates from Thailand, while MAGA Scope (51,000+ followers) and MAGA Beacon both run their operations from Nigeria and South Asia respectively.
Community Reaction and Broader Implications
The revelations have sparked significant reaction across social media platforms. Liberal influencer Harry Sisson celebrated the exposure, writing: 'This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform. Seeing all of these MAGA accounts get exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States is a complete vindication of Democrats, like myself and many on here, who have been warning about this.'
Reddit users joined the investigation effort, sharing numerous examples of accounts appearing to misrepresent their locations. One user posted a screenshot of a woman claiming to live in Texas who instead appeared to be located in Russia, though by Sunday the account in question showed a US location.
This development highlights the ongoing challenge of misinformation and propaganda bots on the platform, a problem that has reportedly worsened since Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 and rebranded it as X. The platform's AI chatbot, Grok, has also faced criticism for frequently making and amplifying false claims.
The exposure of these international operations raises important questions about foreign influence in American political discourse and the effectiveness of social media transparency tools in combating coordinated disinformation campaigns.
