X has begun rolling out its new About This Account feature, and it’s already causing a stir, especially after it seemed to show that many right-wing “America First” accounts are actually based outside the United States.
The feature provides details like when an account was created and how the app was downloaded, but the location data is what has drawn the most attention.
Left-wing influencer Micah Erfan posted screenshots of several MAGA-aligned accounts that the feature claims are based in places like Japan, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Thailand.
He jokingly declared, “This is total armageddon for the online right.”
Some of the accounts shown are small, but others have hundreds of thousands of followers, making the findings even more surprising.
However, X’s director of product Nikita Bier stepped in to clarify the situation. He said the feature is still rolling out globally and called it “an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.”
At the same time, he admitted the data isn’t fully accurate, especially for older accounts, and promised fixes by Tuesday.
Related: X Expands Pay-Per-Use API Beta to More Developers
Tech reporters at The Verge added that while there are certainly troll farms and rage-bait accounts operating outside the U.S., many of these new location tags look suspicious.
They suggested the confusion could be caused by VPN usage, old IP addresses, global work teams, or account travel history.
For now, X users are taking the feature’s location results with caution, and plenty of memes.
