Elon Musk’s social media site X has rolled out a new feature in an effort to increase transparency—and unwittingly revealed that many of the site’s top MAGA influencers are actually foreign actors.

The new “About This Account” feature, which became available to X users on Friday, allows others to see where an account is based, when they joined the platform, how often they have changed their username, and how they downloaded the X app.

Dozens of major accounts masquerading as “America First” or “MAGA” proponents have been identified as originating in places such as Russia, India, and Nigeria.

In one example, the account MAGANationX—with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading “Patriot Voice for We The People”—is actually based in Eastern Europe.

  • ZeroGravitas@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 minutes ago

    “Accidentally” my foot, the one with bells on it. The engineers knew.

    Whether Elon knew and green-lit it, or even ordered the move as payback for his unceremonious departure from DOGE is anyone’s guess. But I stand by what I said earlier, this was intentional - and more power to whoever pushed it to production.

  • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Hey, would you look at that.

    The FBI’s first and foremost job is national security interests, particularly on identifing foreign actors in the state. The feds got played lmfao

  • Guy Ingonito@reddthat.com
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    4 hours ago

    The world’s richest man is paying people in developing countries to stoke racism and division in the US is a factual statement

  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk
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    6 hours ago

    I don’t think this is much of a surprise to anyone. What’s more interesting to me is that X/Twitter just proved they had the information to know this was going on all along and consequently must have chosen not to intervene. That should raise serious questions of the legal variety.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Not to anyone who’s been paying attention. I just met another tankie who professes to have no idea about it so the more common knowledge the better.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      This is actually exactly why Musk did it. It’s not a good faith attempt at transparency… It’s straight up “cover your ass” liability shifting. X has been accused of unfettered propaganda in recent election cycles, and this is just an attempt to go “hey, it’s the user’s fault if they fall for the propaganda. All of the info was there for them to find.”

  • Greddan@feddit.org
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    8 hours ago

    Didn’t this also reveal that the Department of Homeland Security twitter account is ran from Israel?

        • drzoidberg@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          ⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    8 hours ago

    Welcome to the internet? Anonymity allows anyone to pretend to be anything, so they are more the carrier of a message than some authenticity based on a name. And where there is a market for a message, people will consume without regard for who said it, or even often without validating the message itself. Caveat emptor baby.

    • watson@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      “ the knife was right there, your honor! How could anyone expect me not to start stabbing everyone around me? “

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    wait you mean the fact that we call them influencers and the fact that they are literal widget shills and the fact that they push out political propaganda are all related 😯

  • OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    I will admit that I lack knowledge in this area. “Political influencer” is a foreign concept for me. What I’m wondering is how this matters. I’m not a US citizen, but given enough followers, I could easily have been an anti GOP influencer. I would put my word out against the right wing because I don’t want their political movement to spread.

    What am I missing here?

      • OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        I get that it’s bad that people with a large follower base are claiming to be something that they are not, but does that call for legal action? Or does it break with terms of service of xitter or whatever social media they are using? Are influencers legally held to a higher standard due to their line of work? (These are honest questions, not just rhetotical. I honestly don’t know.)

        Or is the main point that xitter had the information that they were lying, but didn’t put their knowledge to action?

        • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          51 minutes ago

          It’s kind of a mix of things. “Political influencer” is just a new way of saying “propagandist.” Especially when it comes to the MAGA movement and fascist extremism rising all across the globe. These are the new KGB initiatives to destabilize Putin’s enemies across the globe (and all kinds of similar intelligence agencies, the US does the same thing I’m sure). It’s the “outside influence” that Twitter and Facebook were accused of during the last two election cycles in the US, which could have major consequences for Musk and Twitter, and this looks like Twitter trying to get off the hook for that by saying “we gave them the info they needed, we’re not at fault for them making the choice to be stupid and believe lies.”

          But the big thing is that it might shake the faith of the cult when they have to start justifying why they’ve been listening to the exact kinds of people they hate.