About This Account: X’s new feature raises questions and suspicions about origins of MAGA accounts

Elon Musk’s X is at the centre of yet another internet debate. The social media platform introduced a new feature on Saturday, called “About this account”, to increase transparency. The feature that displays the surprising location of accounts has sparked confusion, anger and a surge of online sleuthing.

As soon as the feature appeared live, users discovered that many high-engagement, MAGA-branded accounts presenting themselves as patriotic Americans actually appeared to be based in places far from the US, including Eastern Europe, Thailand,…