X definitely has a problem with dishonest troll accounts

On November 22, X (late Twitter) introduced a new feature called “About this account”. This, accessible by clicking on the date an account joined X, allows you to see which country or region an account comes from on the social network.

To justify this addition, Nikita Bier of X indicates: “This is an important first step to guarantee the integrity of the global city square (editor’s note: the pompous name given to X since the arrival of Elon Musk). We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X.“Except that this addition had several very negative results for the platform.

X is just a big smokescreen

First, just the online feature, many users noted that a large number of major accounts, many used to support politicians in the United States like Donald Trump, are not based in the United States. Thus, accounts supposedly based in Uncle Sam’s country are in reality operated from countries such as Nigeria, Thailand and Bangladesh.

Which very possibly confirms what we already strongly suspected: X is used by foreign countries to try to interfere in the politics of other countries. Some of these accounts with thousands of followers, probably troll farms managed by foreign powers like Russia or China, only seek to sow chaos among their competitors and push the political figures who arrange their affairs.

Without forgetting other types of troll accounts, including in France and sometimes certified, such as grazers and others dedicated to scams or disinformation. This transparency approach backfires and thus highlights its problem of reliability and bogus certification.

Shortly after putting this tool online, X deleted and then put back this geographical indication, accompanied by a notice. This specifies “The country or region in which an account is based may be affected by recent travel or temporary relocation. This data may not be accurate and may change periodically.“

X also clarified that tools like VPNs or proxies can distort data. Nikita Bier adds that bugs may be present and will be fixed by Tuesday. In short, a happy mess where it’s difficult to know what to believe.

Yet another privacy problem

The other problem with this feature concerns privacy. By indicating the location of a person without asking their opinion, X can thus endanger people (activists, journalists, dissidents, etc.). An option allows you to only display your region and not your country, but being able to deactivate it completely would certainly be preferable.

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