A new feature on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter allows users to see the location of other accounts. It has resulted in a firestorm of recriminations
When X rolled out a new feature revealing the locations of popular accounts, the company was acting to boost transparency and clamp down on disinformation. The result, however, has been a circular firing squad of recriminations, as users turn on each other enraged by the revelation that dozens of popular “America first” and pro-Trump accounts originated overseas.
An Ivanka Trump fan account that posts about illegal immigration to the US was shown to be based in Nigeria. MAGAStorm, spreading conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Trump, was found to be in eastern Europe. AmericanVoice which posts anti-Islam content, is based in India.
Users have noted that a high proportion of these potentially misleading accounts – many of which claim to be in America – are operating from Asia, but experts are in disagreement over whether they may be state-backed influence campaigns or even opportunists trying to make a quick buck.
Why not both-and?
And I’d bet that even some of the individual accounts are opportunists who have since become state influenced.