{"id":172993,"date":"2025-11-24T09:33:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/xs-new-location-transparency-feature-unleashes-questions-about-origins-of-maga-accounts-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T09:33:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:33:22","slug":"xs-new-location-transparency-feature-unleashes-questions-about-origins-of-maga-accounts-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/xs-new-location-transparency-feature-unleashes-questions-about-origins-of-maga-accounts-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"X's new location transparency feature unleashes questions about origins of MAGA accounts – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A new transparency feature on X has stirred confusion, anger and a wave of online sleuthing after users discovered that the platform was suddenly displaying the surprising locations where certain accounts are based.
Over the weekend, users noticed that clicking an account\u2019s join date now opens a tab that shows the country or region in which the account is located.
X\u2019s head of product, Nikita Bier, teased the feature last month as a way to help users verify the authenticity of content they read and limit the influence of troll farms, which often run political accounts from outside the countries they target.
But as soon as the feature appeared live for users, X was flooded with viral posts showing that numerous high-engagement, MAGA-branded accounts that present themselves as those of patriotic Americans appear to instead be based overseas in Eastern Europe, Thailand, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
An account that calls itself \u201cULTRAMAGA 🇺🇸 TRUMP🇺🇸2028,\u201d claiming to be based in Washington, D.C., is listed as being based in Africa<\/a>. Another now-deleted account with a President Donald Trump-inspired username \u2014 \u201cTrump Is My President\u201d \u2014 was listed as being based in Macedonia<\/a>. And an account with the username @American, complete with a profile picture featuring a bald eagle over an American flag, is apparently based in South Asia<\/a>.
But the posts that stirred the biggest frenzy came Friday morning, when screenshots and screen recordings claiming the U.S. Department of Homeland Security account was listed as being based in Israel quickly went viral. The department and Bier have both denied the speculation, claiming the posts are spreading misinformation.
X users circulated images and videos that alleged to show the location field displaying \u201cTel Aviv, Israel.\u201d The account information feature abruptly disappeared Friday night.
NBC News did not view the account\u2019s location before the feature went away Friday and has not confirmed the authenticity of the posts.
The situation unfolded amid mounting backlash from across the political spectrum to U.S. officials\u2019 support for Israel, which many commentators have lamented as appearing to prioritize a foreign entity over America.
DHS initially responded<\/a> with a meme-like image of Trump, looking stunned, which neither confirmed nor denied the discourse about its account location.
On Sunday, it followed up with an official denial<\/a>.
\u201cI can\u2019t believe we have to say this, but this account has only ever been run and operated from the United States,\u201d DHS posted. \u201cScreenshots are easy to forge, videos are easy to manipulate. Thank you for your attention to this matter.\u201d
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for DHS pointed NBC News to the same social media statement.
The account information feature returned soon after Friday\u2019s brief shutoff, with Bier announcing a global rollout<\/a> Saturday. But the feature, which previously listed both an account\u2019s current location and its location on the date of its creation, no longer shows the latter.
Bier also responded to the speculation<\/a> by telling a user to \u201cstop spreading misinformation,\u201d saying X\u2019s account information feature was temporarily shut off \u201cbecause the account creation country was incorrect on a very small subset of old accounts, due to IP ranges changing over time.\u201d He did not clarify whether such an error was present on DHS\u2019 account specifically.
Still, he responded to some of the posts showing the DHS account as being based in Israel, calling the claim \u201cfake news.\u201d
\u201cLocation was not available on any gray check [government] account at any point,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in response to one screen recording, which X has now labeled as \u201cmanipulated media.\u201d \u201cFurthermore, the DHS has only shown IPs from the United States since account creation.\u201d
As of Sunday morning, however, the location information is available again on the DHS account. This time, it reads: \u201cUnited States.\u201d But DHS appears to be the only gray-check government account that displays the location where it is based, as other government accounts now display only their dates of account creation and account verification.
Bier and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bier said in a post<\/a> that there are still \u201ca few rough edges\u201d around the feature that should be resolved by Tuesday.
\u201cIf any data is incorrect, it will be updated periodically based on best available information,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis happens on a delayed and randomized schedule to preserve privacy.\u201d
Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA new transparency feature on X has stirred confusion, anger and a wave of online sleuthing after users discovered that the platform was suddenly displaying the surprising locations where certain accounts are based.Over the weekend, users noticed that clicking an account\u2019s join date now opens a tab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}