X’s new location tag sparks backlash, unmasks offshore troll farms

Elon Musk’s platform X faced a surge of criticism after rolling out a feature that displays an account’s country or region, a move the company says is meant to boost transparency on a site long faulted for disinformation.

Head of product Nikita Bier said the change lets users see where an account is based and called it a first step toward safeguarding the “global town square.” The launch quickly triggered online sleuthing, with users highlighting prominent right-wing personalities who present themselves as US-based but whose accounts showed locations in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

A NewsGuard analysis cited by AFP said several influential pro-Trump accounts that appeared to be run overseas pushed dozens of false claims over the past 15 months. Benjamin Strick of the Centre for Information Resilience said the new signal helps investigators link suspicious networks to specific regions rather than relying on posting patterns alone.

X cautioned the location tag “may not be accurate” and can shift with travel, temporary relocation or VPN use. Bier acknowledged “rough edges” and promised improvements, later claiming accuracy would approach 99.99%. Critics warned the feature could endanger dissidents, though X said privacy toggles limit disclosure to broader regions where speech carries penalties.

Soon after the rollout, some high-follower impostor accounts were suspended, including one that posed as an Ivanka Trump fan page and showed Nigeria as its location. The controversy arrives as X trims moderation staff and leans more on automated systems, a trend that researchers say has made the platform more vulnerable to influence operations.