X’s “About This Account” Feature Sees Immediate Backlash

X has begun rolling out a new transparency feature called “About This Account”, which displays metadata such as an account’s base country, join date, how it was downloaded, and username history. The rollout, announced by X’s Head of Product Nikita Bier, is intended to help users assess the authenticity of accounts and detect possible inauthentic behavior.

However, users quickly spotted glaring inaccuracies in the location data. One likely source of the mismatch, according to reports, is misleading IP data. The Verge and others have pointed out that travel, VPN use, or old IP addresses could distort location signals. However, one of the more notable causes was due to many agitator accounts being based outside the countries they were focused on – mainly American political accounts.

The sudden release of this feature allowed users to see where many major accounts were based, which gave away a lot of foreign-run politically-driven accounts and provided direct proof that they weren’t being operated locally as well as a potential flood of false positives. In parallel, X is reportedly testing a feature that warns users when it detects VPN or proxy connections – when such a connection is identified, a warning may be displayed: “Country or region may not be accurate.”

Privacy advocates have raised concerns. While some see the tool as valuable for detecting foreign influence or bad actors, others say the feature risks outing users who rely on VPNs for security, including journalists and activists. X has also added controls that let users obscure precise country labels. In their settings, users can choose to display a region or a continent instead.

It remains to be seen whether or not this feature will stick around for long, considering the immediate backlash and controversy that followed. However, if the system stays in place, it will probably see some major tweaks in the near future to better accommodate the platform’s users.