About This Account reveals the scale of X's foreign troll problem

"It's long been known that X (and Twitter before it) is a major venue for foreign influence campaigns to meddle in American politics. Much of the focus has been on Russian troll farms, which the US government has targeted on several occasions. But the launch of X's About This Account feature may have revealed the scope and geographical breadth of its foreign troll problem."

"Almost immediately after the feature launched, people started noticing that many rage-bait accounts focused on US politics appeared to be based outside of the US. Profiles with names like ULTRAMAGA🇺🇸TRUMP🇺🇸2028 were revealed to be based in Nigeria. A verified account posing as border czar Tom Homan was traced to Eastern Europe. And America_First0? Apparently from Bangladesh. An entire network of " Trump-supporting independent women " claiming to be from America was really located in Thailand."

"Threads quickly started growing, collecting all the pro-MAGA trolls that claimed to be American, but were really foreign actors from every corner of the globe. Some right-wing personalities were quick to jump on evidence that many left-wing X users were also not who they claimed to be. In no time at all, X was flooded with people calling out the seemingly endless list of fake and troll accounts focused on stoking political anger."

The About This Account feature on X revealed many accounts focused on US politics that were based abroad, exposing a geographically broad troll presence. Examples included accounts traced to Nigeria, Eastern Europe, Bangladesh, and Thailand that presented themselves as American political actors. Public threads cataloged numerous pro-MAGA and other politically charged accounts that were actually operated from overseas, prompting widespread calls-outs. X subsequently removed some account-creation location data and added disclaimers noting travel, VPNs, and proxies can cause inaccuracies, though many flagged locations are unlikely to be explained solely by those factors. Some operations may be state-sponsored while others likely pursue monetary gain.

Read at The Verge