According to TechCrunch, Elon Musk’s X has begun rolling out a new “About this account” feature that displays detailed profile information including the account’s location, original join date, number of username changes, and how the user downloaded the X app. The feature started appearing on user profiles after X’s head of product Nikita Bier promised delivery within 72 hours in response to a user request last weekend. This transparency initiative aims to reduce inauthentic engagement by helping users identify bots and bad actors who often pretend to be humans. While some users globally can now see their own account information, TechCrunch couldn’t access this data on other people’s profiles as of press time. X allows users to adjust whether their profile displays their specific country or just their geographical region, with country being the default setting.
How it actually works
Here’s the thing – you access this by clicking on the “Joined” date on your profile, which takes you to a page with all these details. It’s basically X’s attempt to give users more context about who they’re interacting with. If someone claims to be from Texas but their account shows they’re based in Russia, that’s a pretty big red flag. But there’s a catch – users can choose to show just their region instead of their specific country. So you might see “North America” instead of “United States,” which makes the information less precise but still somewhat useful.
The VPN complication
Now here’s where it gets interesting. A reverse engineer digging through the app’s code found that X appears to be working on an additional feature that would display a warning if you’re using a VPN to mask your location. Aaronp613 discovered that this would flag accounts where the “country or region may not be accurate.” But think about this – what about legitimate VPN users? People use VPNs for privacy, security, work requirements, or just to access content. Would flagging all VPN users actually help identify bots, or would it just create false positives?
Privacy versus transparency
X is walking a fine line here. On one hand, more transparency could help combat the bot problem that’s plagued the platform for years. As Nikita Bier originally explained, the goal is to help users make informed decisions about who they’re engaging with. But on the other hand, do users really want their location and app download history visible to everyone? And let’s be honest – sophisticated bot operators will probably find ways around these measures anyway. They always do.
Not exactly groundbreaking
Here’s something worth noting – X isn’t inventing this concept. Instagram has offered a similar “About this account” feature for years. So while it’s new to X, the social media transparency playbook already exists. The real question is whether users will actually use this information, or if it’ll become just another piece of ignored profile data. And will it make a dent in the platform’s bot problem? I’m skeptical, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.
