This could expose a lot of troll accounts on X, who regularly post about foreign politics and related issues.
X recently announced that it will soon be adding new data to user profiles that will indicate when the account was created, the creators’ location, and any username changes over time.
Any user will be able to tap through on a user’s profile to access this info, which could make it much easier to highlight bots and manipulator accounts that have been designed to antagonize and provoke in the app, by amplifying divisive content.
X has indicated that these new profile elements will be rolling out very soon, while it’s also working on another new data point that could be equally valuable in this respect: An indicator of whether an account is using a VPN to hide its true location.
All of this additional account info will be accessible in a new “About this profile” element. So it won’t necessarily be displayed up front, or in-stream, but it will give X users another way to potentially dispel or contextualize certain comments and remarks, by understanding where that user is posting from, and potentially, why they’re interested in foreign activity.
Which has been a significant problem, on X and all social media apps. Foreign operations regularly target social media platforms to amplify propaganda, or exacerbate concerns, in the hopes of destabilizing and/or undermining foreign governments.
Indeed, Microsoft has repeatedly identified large-scale influence activity from China, targeting U.S.-based social media platforms, while in 2025 alone, Google has terminated more than 10k YouTube channels linked to coordinated influence operations run by Chinese state actors, along with hundreds more connected to Russian operations.
And with X lowering its moderation buffers to allow for more free speech, that’s also reportedly made it a bigger target for such activity, which could make these new indicators a powerful signal to help reduce such influence, and negate the impacts of influence efforts.
That is, of course, if people check. If X is able to raise awareness of these new features, that should lessen the impact of foreign operatives in the app, because someone in the comments, at the least, is going to note the location (or the use of a VPN), which will likely lessen the impact of such commentary.
But it will depend on users actually raising this as a concern, or point of note, on any such discussion,
In any event, it’s a good move for transparency, and could give X users a whole lot more context around what they’re reading, and whose posting it.
The new “About this profile” data page looks set to be launched in the app soon.
