The social network X, owned by Elon Musk, has introduced a new transparency feature that displays the country or region where user accounts are based. This information can be found in the «About This Account» tab, which also reveals the profile creation date and name history. This was reported by The New York Times.
According to X's product head, Nikita Bir, this is «the first step towards ensuring the integrity of the global public space». The company stated that it plans to add more tools for verifying content authenticity.
The launch of this feature has caused mixed reactions. Users noticed that many accounts actively commenting on political issues in the USA were registered in other countries, including Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Thailand. This raised suspicions about the origins and true owners of such profiles.
Accounts frequently shared by Elon Musk himself attracted particular attention, significantly boosting their audience.

Criticism and Risks

Critics emphasize that the new feature may pose risks to security and privacy. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that the system is easily manipulable: accounts can fake their location, posing as users from the USA or the UK. This, he believes, opens the door for foreign trolls and political campaigns.
Some members of the crypto community labeled the innovation as «psychotic» since it could endanger real users by exposing their location without adequate protection.

Political Context

The feature has already become a topic of discussion in the USA, where users have started to verify the origins of accounts sharing political messages. Specifically, it was discovered that some accounts branded MAGA (Make America Great Again) were based outside the country. This raised new questions about foreign influence on the American political discourse.
Additionally, a U.S. lawsuit revealed internal documents where social media employees compared their platforms to drugs.