Many divisive X accounts are foreign-based. What does that tell us?
On X, they appear as The General. The account, which features a blue checkmark and describes itself as “constitutionalist, patriotic, ethnically American,” has shared a steady stream of pro-Trump and US-centric content since March 2016.
But The General may not be what its followers envision: the account is actually based in Türkiye.
This is just one of several highly active and relentlessly partisan accounts on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, that have been affected by a new feature allowing users to see the country of origin of posters. This geolocation data unmasked dozens of accounts that generate millions of impressions on American politics and other trending topics despite being located outside the United States. The transparency feature, released on November 21, itself became a viral topic on X and other platforms.
Why we wrote this
A new feature on social media platform X reveals that many popular accounts featuring inflammatory content about American politics are located in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. While it’s unclear who is behind these actions, experts say many are simply trying to profit from the outrage.
Although geolocation data is incomplete and, in some cases, disputed by account holders, users have taken advantage of revelations that some prominent X accounts appear to be frauds. Pro-Trump posters extolling the virtues of America First were found to be based in Nigeria and Bangladesh. Progressive content was amplified by foreign posters claiming to represent American voters.
Who is behind these accounts is not always clear. Foreign governments have been known to use social media to spread disinformation and influence U.S. elections. Among these best-documented efforts is Russia’s attempt to stoke tensions following police shootings and Black Lives Matter protests in 2016, using fake personas on both sides.
But researchers who study misinformation say much of the divisive content is motivated by something more fundamental: money. Posters on X can benefit from clicks. And what many American users are reliably interested in is outrageous political content that may be wildly inaccurate and yet deemed credible by partisans.
Yet as more Americans get their news from social media rather than traditional journalistic sources, the impact of this injustice can be far-reaching.
“The central problem here is the inherent unreliability of the information ecosystem,” says Mor Naaman, professor of information science at Cornell Tech in New York. “Our information ecosystem relies on incentives that invite everyone to post divisive or engaging content because they sometimes make money.”
In the Middle East, X geolocation data shows that some pro-Palestinian posters claiming to be in Gaza are elsewhere, raising doubts about their authenticity. Some accounts relaying images of life under duress in Gaza and soliciting donations have been exposed as potential scams. In the UK, some accounts advocating Scottish independence appear to originate in Iran and the Netherlands.
In the United States, this “great unmasking” highlighted a multitude of “patriotic” MAGA accounts located in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Many of these accounts feature AI-generated images of blonde-haired American women and of President Donald Trump and his family. Surprising locations also appeared for left-wing accounts – like one called Republicans Against Trump, with almost half a million followers, which was revealed to be based in Austria before switching headquarters to the United States.
Analysts say incentives for “anger baiters” are built into X’s business model under Mr. Musk’s ownership. Take the blue check mark, which was originally intended to signal that an account holder was who they claimed to be. It has now become a paid badge that helps content creators, authentic or not, build audiences that can be monetized through revenue sharing with the platform.
“This makes it easier, not harder, to make fake or proxy accounts credible,” says Emilio Ferrara, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California, by email.
At the same time, X removed its moderation and trust and safety teams and instead asked users to provide context to misleading posts in the form of community ratings. Crowdsourced tools can be useful, but it’s difficult to assess what X’s features mean for false and manipulative content since X no longer allows independent researchers access to its data, Professor Ferrara says.
Some accounts responded to X’s geolocation data by pretending to be Americans living or working abroad. The general, for example, posted a video from an American passport and claimed to be in Türkiye on a business trip.
When announcing X’s new geolocation feature, Nikita Bier, the company’s product manager, called it an “important first step” and promised to introduce more ways for users to verify the authenticity of content. In a later article, he said there were still “some rough edges” to iron out. Some account owners have complained about inaccuracies and said the use of VPNs and other proxy connections could lead to mislabeling of legitimate accounts.
There are technical challenges in identifying what is or is not an authentic “popular” voice in online debates, because foreign actors can be sophisticated at hiding their tracks, says Professor Ferrara, who studies inauthentic behavior on digital platforms. “People can put too much trust in a signal that’s still inaccurate,” he says of X’s new feature.
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Zach Schapira, a former X executive, and Sean Rad, founder of the dating app Tinder, call on They also recommend that algorithms prioritize authentic national content. “Americans debating issues that affect their communities deserve a feed that reflects true local voices and the true local popularity of those voices,” they write.
Still, some fear that any radical approach will fail, as deceptive posters rely on VPNs and other tools to mask their origin while continuing to use AI tools to distribute content.
Targeting Americans, in particular, with provocative and divisive political content, partly reflects the purchasing power of American consumers. MAGA’s popular content frequently attracts advertisements for gold and men’s health supplements, among other products. “It could be that there are simply more immediate products to sell to right-wing user X,” says Professor Naaman. (The platform is also skewed to the right; Bluesky, another social media platform, has become a liberal hub.)
Mr. Musk, who has 229 million followers on X with whom he shares right-wing political content daily, has not yet commented on the geolocation revelations. It’s something of a double-edged sword for his management of a platform that he touts as the best news source in the world, says Renée DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University. Increased transparency “helps people be more aware of the existence of these types of anger hunters in their information ecosystem,” she says. At the same time, it is pointed out “that the platform does indeed offer perverse incentives” for inauthentic posters to make money.
Even if account holders don’t hide their country of origin, “being confrontational, provocative and divisive” pays off, says Professor DiResta. “Everyone in tech knows this is happening.”
