""The Aura of President Donald Trump is unimaginable. Love him or hate him, no one remains unmoved in his presence," wrote the X account @TRUMP_ARMY_ earlier this month. For the account, which has more than 500,000 followers, this sort of fawning message is pretty typical. Two days earlier, the account reposted, "The President puts America First over his own financial gains. 🔥🔥" Another post reads, "Drop a ❤️, if you Love President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump!!""
"That same day, X's head of product gave some news. "In a couple hours, we'll be rolling out About This Account globally, allowing you to see the country or region where an account is based," he said, calling it an "important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square." And so @TRUMP_ARMY_, along with countless other hyperpartisan X accounts, was suddenly exposed: This America Firster was posting from India."
X introduced an "About This Account" feature that showed the country or region where accounts are based. The feature revealed that numerous hyperpartisan, U.S.-focused MAGA accounts were posting from abroad, in several cases from India. A large pro-Trump account with over 500,000 followers posted fervent pro-Trump messages that were shared across platforms. Users flagged the foreign origins, and X disabled the location feature within hours after it indicated thousands of prominent and verified MAGA accounts were foreign. Political figures characterized the revelation as evidence of foreign actors seeking to influence and divide American politics.
Read at Intelligencer
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