X’s new feature raises questions about the foreign origins of some popular US political accounts

By BARBARA ORTUTAY Associated Press They go by names like TRUMP ARMY or MAGANationX and their verified accounts proudly display portraits of President Donald Trump voter rallies and American flags And they re constantly posting about U S politics to their followers sounding like diehard fans of the president But after a weekend update to the social media platform X it s now clear that the owners of these accounts and a large number of others are located in regions such as South Asia Africa and Eastern Europe Elon Musk s X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based Online sleuths and experts expeditiously determined that multiple popular accounts posting in advocacy of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers are based outside the United States raising concerns about foreign influence on U S politics Researchers at NewsGuard a firm that tracks online misinformation identified several popular accounts purportedly run by Americans interested in politics that instead were based in Eastern Europe Asia or Africa The accounts were leading disseminators of several misleading and polarizing proposes about U S politics including ones that stated Democrats bribed the moderators of a presidential debate Related Articles FBI seeks interviews with Democratic lawmakers who urged US troops to defy illegal orders Particular DACA recipients have been arrested in the Trump s immigration crackdown Trump allows more foreign ag workers eases off ICE raids on farms Trump administration plans to review refugees admitted under Biden memo obtained by The AP says White House circulates a plan to extend Obamacare subsidies as Trump pledges fitness care fix What is the location feature Nikita Bier X s head of product revealed Saturday that the social media platform is rolling out an About This Account tool which lets users see the country or region where an account is based To find an account s location tap or click the signup date displayed on the profile This is an vital first step to securing the integrity of the global town square We plan to provide a multitude of more solutions for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X Bier wrote In countries with punitive speech restrictions a privacy tool on X lets account holders only show their region rather than a specific country So instead of India for instance an account can say it is based in South Asia Bier disclosed Sunday that after an update to the tool it would accurate though this could not be independently verified Accounts for instance can use a virtual private configuration or VPN to mask their true location On a few accounts there s a notice saying the location information may not be accurate either because the account uses a VPN or because particular internet providers use proxies automatically without action by the user Which accounts are causing disagreement Certain of the accounts supported slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk as well as President Donald Trump s children A multitude of of the accounts were adorned with U S flags or made comments suggesting they were American An account called BarronTNews for instance is shown as being located in Eastern Europe Non-EU even though the display location on its profile says Mar A Lago The account which has more than followers posted on Tuesday that This is a FAN account independent run by one guy who loves this country and supports President Trump with everything I ve got NewsGuard also discovered evidence that a few X users are spreading misinformation about the location feature itself incorrectly accusing specific accounts of being operated from abroad when they re veritably used by Americans Investigators exposed several instances where one user created fake screenshots that appear to suggest an account was created overseas It s not perpetually clear what the motives of the accounts While various may be state actors it s likely that several are financially motivated posting commentary memes and videos to draw engagement Users were divided over the new ability to see an account s location information with various questioning whether it went too far Isn t this kind of an invasion of privacy One X user wrote No one necessities to see this info Associated Press Writer David Klepper contributed to this story