X’s rollout of its new About This Account feature has triggered widespread confusion, user disputes and rapid revisions inside the company. The tool, which began appearing yesterday, displays the country an account is “based” in and originally also showed the country where the account was created. Within hours, users reported inaccuracies, prompting X to remove part of the feature and acknowledge internal errors.
Early Complaints and Immediate Corrections
Head of product Nikita Bier described the launch as having “a few rough edges” and said fixes would arrive by Tuesday. As reports grew, the company removed the “created from” field entirely, saying the information was “not 100 percent,” especially for older accounts.
Users quickly pointed to examples that seemed inconsistent. Some said the platform listed them as being based in countries they had never visited. Others saw brands or media outlets with global staff tagged as being located far from their headquarters.
Examples included Hank Green’s account showing as based in Japan, MusicTech listed as being in the US despite being linked to UK magazine NME, and Avid, the Massachusetts-based company behind ProTools, appearing as based in Spain.
User Reactions Fuel Online Hostility
The response on X quickly shifted away from assessing technical issues. Many users began using the location labels to accuse accounts they disagreed with of being foreign operatives, despite having earlier noted inaccuracies on their own profiles. In other cases, individuals posted claims that political opponents were running influence efforts, even when the displayed information clearly contradicted known biographical details.
These reactions, amplified across the platform, turned the rollout into a broader argument about authenticity, political motives and the reliability of X’s internal data.
Possible Causes Behind Location Errors
Several factors may contribute to the inaccuracies. Users who travel may appear briefly “based” in another country due to IP changes. Companies with staff distributed globally might trigger inconsistent signals. VPN usage can shift an account’s detected region, and older accounts might still reflect outdated IP logs.
While these issues explain many anomalies, there is some factual context behind concerns about foreign activity. Some political spam accounts are operated outside the US, and past investigations have shown troll farms attempting to influence American political discussions. X’s monetization system, which rewards engagement, has also incentivised accounts to provoke emotional reactions, particularly around political content.
Featured image credits: Julian via Unsplash
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