X Introduces New Feature Revealing Account Creation Dates and Regional Locations

Social media platform X—formerly known as Twitter—has launched a new feature that reveals an account’s creation date and region-based location, particularly highlighting accounts that frequently post about U.S. politics.

The feature was announced last Saturday by X’s Head of Product, Nikita Bier, in a post on the platform. According to The New York Times, users soon noticed that many accounts regularly posting in support of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement were not actually based in the United States.

One such account, “MAGA Nation,” which has nearly 400,000 followers and routinely shares pro-Trump content, was shown to be located in a country in Eastern Europe. Similar MAGA-supporting accounts were found to be operating from Bangladesh, Thailand, and Nigeria.

An account named “America First”—using a photo of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt—was revealed to be located in Bangladesh. Its bio reads, “For good, against evil.” A post from 17 November stated, “Good morning X! God bless America.” The account has around 67,000 followers.

Neither The New York Times nor CNN provided an exact count of how many pro-MAGA accounts are run from outside the U.S. However, their analyses found that many of these accounts use highly patriotic American imagery, pictures of Trump’s family members or administration officials, and frequently post links and video clips related to Trump—content that can generate revenue for account owners through X’s monetization program.

Trump himself has shared posts from several such accounts on his Truth Social platform. On Sunday, he shared a post from an account called “Commentary Donald J. Trump” featuring an image captioned, “Do you support someone born abroad running for office?” After the location feature rolled out, this account was shown to be based in Africa.

Though several trials have been made for reaching out to X for comment regarding these accounts, but the company did not respond. The Times reported that after the locations of these pro-Trump accounts became public, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on X asserting that its own account is not operated from outside the country.

X, now owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has long faced scrutiny over the spread of misinformation through fake and automated accounts. According to researchers, bot accounts were active during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading false information and conspiracy theories, and have also played roles in influencing elections in the U.S. and other countries by amplifying provocative content.