X unleashed some enjoyable chaos towards the end of last week when it fully launched the "About this account” feature I previously wrote about.
You can now view information such as the country/region where an X account is based, how many times it changed its username, how it's connected to X (via the web, a country’s app store, etc.), and if and when an account was verified.
The chaos came when people used the feature to show that MAGA accounts that claimed to be American were being run by people overseas, networks of accounts that ostensibly belong to attractive young women also had overseas operators, and more.
If you’ve been paying any attention to the information environment over the past decade, it’s no surprise to see that people in places like Macedonia, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam are targeting Americans and other English-language populations with hyperpartisan content, ragebait memes, misleading personas, and other forms of deceptive content. I’ve been reporting on this dynamic for a long time, perhaps most famously with my 2016 story with Lawrence Alexander about teens and young men in North Macedonia that spread false pro-Tump news for profit.
Nearly 10 years later, I’m still at it, reporting on foreign-run YouTube channels that cashed in on AI slop about the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial and Vietnam-linked Facebook pages that spread celebrity hoaxes for profit.
What’s notable is that X supercharged this type of activity when Elon Musk loosened moderation and introduced a creator monetization program that paid people for viral tweets. (I recommend reading this recent piece from from Renee DiResta.)
Today I’m going to focus on how digital investigators can use the information provided by X’s “About this account” feature in their work. It offers potentially useful information and welcome transparency, but there are limitations, as well as some historical context, that you need to keep in mind when deciding how to use it in an investigation.
I’ll aim update this guide as the feature evolves in order to keep Indicator members up to date.
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