Elon Musk owned and operated the social media platform X before it added a new “transparency feature” that provides more detail about accounts, including the locations of the users who are located behind them.
X says the move will provide greater transparency and address concerns about “bots” that spread misinformation by enabling users to identify where they are based.
However, users around the world are concerned about privacy and safety.
What is happening here is examined more closely.
What is happening at X?
The new feature, which will be available on the social media platform’s website on November 22, was made public by Nikita Bier, head of product at the social media platform.
“We’ll be rolling out About This Account globally in a couple of hours, allowing you to view the country or region where an account is based. This will be accessible by tapping the signup date on profiles”, Bier wrote.
X account profiles include a clickable “About This Account” page, which is accessible from the user menu. This page has currently only made the account creation date public.
Additionally, it now displays information like the country where the account holder is located, the country where the account was created, the number of times the username has changed, and when, as well as the country of origin at the time of creation. It also indicates whether the app has been installed on an Android device or via the iOS App Store and in which country.
The date the account was verified also appears if the account is verified. For some verified profiles, company affiliation also appears, such as for Marco Rubio’s US Secretary of State or X for Musk.
X said this is necessary to ensure content posted on the platform is “authentic” and transparent.
“This is a crucial first step in protecting the global town square’s integrity. Users can verify the veracity of the content they see on X in many more ways, according to Bier.
Can users opt out of this?
Overall, no. The platform did not appear to offer the option to conceal this information from other users as of Tuesday. For private accounts, which users must request permission from the account holder to follow, the new information is only accessible to users who have been approved to follow them.
We’ve added privacy toggles to only show your region for users who are located in nations with restrictions on free speech, Bier added. He did not specify which nations he was referring to or why users there were receiving this feature.
Could this compromise users ‘ safety?
The new feature, according to Mark Owen Jones, an associate professor of media analytics at Northwestern University in Qatar, could help authorities identify or narrow down a person’s location because of security concerns.
He added that it might also stoke attacks against those who are falsely accused of obtaining their information.
“For example, saying that a journalist has been lying about their location in Poland, could lead to attacks on that person online, maybe in person, accusations of fraud that might have knock-on consequences on their personal and professional life”, Jones said.
In that situation, it runs the risk of causing harm to a person, including their well-being, reputation, and other forms of harassment.
Who might suffer the most from this?
Palestinians in Gaza are one group who could be particularly vulnerable to these sorts of claims, Jones said, because it is very difficult to verify who is telling the truth and who is not.
Some X users have since claimed that accounts purportedly from Palestinians in Gaza are actually based in other nations since the feature was introduced. For instance, according to the About This Account page, an account called @yasminemuhamsd, which was set up last month, appears to be owned by a Palestinian mother in Gaza.
Another verified page, @sam_uel_best appears to be of a woman named Sarah Ali, whose bio reads “a Gazan woman, still resilient”. Links to various fundraisers are reposted on the account for both local causes in the US and for Gaza. These links are primarily inactive. The About This Account page says that this account is based in Nigeria.
In an X-post, the Israeli Foreign Ministry claims that “New X feature ripped mask off numerous fake “Gazan” accounts. One chap is posting from Pakistan, the other is in London. Another manipulative abuser somewhere else. All of whom claim to be suffering in Gaza while residing in a far-off coffee shop.
However, many people use VPN [virtual private network] services to conceal their locations while browsing the internet and conceal their IP addresses. This can also spoof the location online and show it to be different from the actual location of the user.
Because it only provides location information without verifying its accuracy, Jones claimed the feature is only of limited value.
“Of course, we are aware of scammers and phony Palestinians trying to get money,” Jones said. However, he said, the creation of these sorts of accounts is just as likely to be a ploy to discredit genuine X users in Gaza.
What if you set up a number of fake accounts that are obviously swindlers and then use those accounts to claim that Palestinians are being defrauded? There are some people doing that, and you could easily engineer that scenario. If your job is to basically make Palestinians look bad and you don’t have any scruples, that’s exactly what you’d do”.
According to Jones, pro-Israeli accounts have long used conspiracy theories to undermine Palestinian content on social media, including one about what they call “Paliwood.”
Pro-Israeli users claim that videos of atrocities in Gaza were staged and fake by using terms like “Paliwood” and “Gazawood.”
Jones said that if pro-Israeli accounts can claim that Palestinian influencers and journalists are also lying about their location, “it’s another piece of ‘ evidence ‘ saying that they are just misleading the public”.
“These reputational attacks on Palestinians, which will serve as a fuel for further bolstering the Israeli occupation and genocide,” says one critic.
Will this feature actually aid in the detection of real “bots”?
It’s debatable.
According to their About This Account pages, several Donald Trump supporters’ accounts, including those called @MAGANationX and @MAGAStormX, have been shown to be based in Eastern Europe since the feature was released on November 22.
Similar pages appear to have pages in Thailand and Bangladesh, which raises user concerns about the alleged high number of “bots” operating in foreign nations who are disseminating political and electoral misinformation on the platform.
However, because of the widespread use of VPNs, which mask users ‘ true locations, people cannot confirm the information they see, Jones said. In consequence, users are effectively tasked with identifying fraud, spam bots, or state-backed information operations.
It only provides location information without actually enabling users to determine whether the location data is accurate. What’s the point of rolling out a feature when you also roll out a qualifier saying, well, the accuracy of this information cannot be trusted?
Instead of crowdsourcing account policing, the companies should be able to stop users from using the platform and having accounts. Again, it’s just businesses being lazy, not doing their due diligence, and then passing responsibility on the customer.
Can ‘ About this Account ‘ pages be doctored?
Can you provide screenshots and images of them.
Some X users have already started sharing fake photos and videos that purport to show other users’ “About This Account” pages. One post on X, for example, accused the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) account of being based in Israel.
Bier responded to Bier’s contention, saying that since account creation, DHS has only shown IPs from Americans.
The department’s account location displayed the US when Al Jazeera checked on Tuesday.
On November 23, the department posted on its X account:” I can’t believe we have to say this, but this account has only ever been run and operated from the United States. Videos and screenshots are both simple to edit and forge. I appreciate you paying attention to this issue.
Could the “About This Account” page contain incorrect information?
The feature is very new on X and Bier acknowledged that his team is ironing out a few” rough edges “which would be resolved by Tuesday this week.
