November 25, 2025 / 7:09 PM EST / CBS/AP
A weekend update to X revealed that many accounts presenting as U.S. political commentators are actually operated from abroad. Profiles with names like @TRUMP_ARMY and @MAGANationX, displaying Trump portraits, rally photos and American flags, attracted thousands to hundreds of thousands of followers — but X’s new “About This Account” feature shows the country or region where an account is based.
X product head Nikita Bier said users can view the location by tapping or clicking the signup date on a profile. She called the tool an early but important step to protect platform integrity and said X will add more ways to verify authenticity. In places with restrictive speech laws, the label may show only a broad region (for example, “South Asia”) rather than a specific country.
Researchers and online investigators quickly used the disclosure to identify prominent accounts that portray themselves as American but appear to be run from South Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and other regions. NewsGuard, which monitors online misinformation, flagged multiple such accounts tied to those areas that were among the most active spreaders of misleading or polarizing claims, including allegations that Democrats bribed moderators during a 2024 presidential debate.
X said an updated version of the tool would be 99.99% accurate but acknowledged independent verification is difficult because operators can use virtual private networks or have traffic routed through proxies. X also displays notices on some profiles warning that location information may be inaccurate for those reasons.
Experts urged caution in interpreting the results. Alexios Mantzarlis of Cornell Tech’s Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative said location labels are useful but limited: they may have the most value immediately after exposure, and actors will adapt. He also pointed out that other platforms have offered similar transparency without eliminating misinformation.
Some accounts exposed by the tool show clear U.S.-focused branding or claim American residence. One example flagged by X is @BarronTNews_, which X displays as located in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU)” despite a profile line reading “Mar A Lago.” That account, with more than 580,000 followers, described itself as “a FAN account … run by one guy who loves this country and supports President Trump.”
Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs called these operations part of a “rage economy” that monetizes public interest in politics. He suggested many are foreign-based actors seeking engagement and revenue, and he praised X for exposing them while predicting some may lose influence.
NewsGuard also found attempts to mislead users about the new feature, including fabricated screenshots purporting to show accounts created overseas when they were not. Motives behind the disclosed accounts vary: some may be linked to state influence operations, but many appear financially driven — producing commentary, memes and videos to generate attention and ad or platform revenue.
Mantzarlis said financial incentives likely drive the most visible accounts unmasked so far, though he warned state actors remain a documented threat. Users are divided over privacy concerns, with some viewing public location labels as invasive. X’s location feature adds transparency but also creates a new vector for manipulation and fuels debate about online authenticity and foreign influence.