Elon Musk’s X has begun rolling out a new feature for user profiles that will show information about the account, such as where it is located, how many times the account has changed its username, the account’s original registration date, and how the user downloaded the X app. The new information is intended to reduce authentic engagement on the platform, where bots often pretend to be human — a problem that could become even more difficult for police in the age of artificial intelligence.
X’s plans for the feature were first announced in October, when X’s head of product Nikita Bier said the company would experiment with displaying this information on profiles, starting with its own account and X’s employees. The idea is that by revealing these details, users will be able to make a more informed decision about whether they’re interacting with an authentic account or whether the account was a bot or a bad actor, looking to sow discord or spread misinformation.
For example, if an X account’s bio claimed the user was from a US state, but their account information shows they’re based overseas, you might suspect they had another agenda.
Last weekend, Bier responded to a post where a user asked Elon Musk to require accounts to display information about where they are based telling the user, “Give me 72 hours.”
In the days since, more people have seen the “About this account” feature become available on their own profiles.
To view your account information on the web or X mobile app, you will click on the “Register” date on your profile. From here, you’re taken to a page that shows your Twitter/X signup date, where your account is based, how many username changes you’ve made and when the last one was made, and how you’re connected to X — like through the US App Store or Google Play, for example.
But while some users on a global level hectare reference that the feature has appeared on its own profiles, TechCrunch cannot access that account information on other people’s profiles from the time of publication. This may be because X wants to give users time to preview their information for accuracy and adjust their settings before it is released more widely.
Specifically, X allows users to customize whether or not the feature shows their country, or only shows their geographic region. Initially, the company said this would be an option in regions where free speech could be sanctioned, but we’re seeing that even US users can choose to set their profile to show either their country or region/continent. (Country is the default, though.)
To make the change, you can access the About Your Account setting in the Privacy & Security settings of the X app.
A reverse engineer digging into the app’s code (see below) also found that X seems to be working on an additional feature that would display a warning in your account if you used a VPN to hide your location. It’s unclear if or when this feature will roll out, but if it does, it will alert others that the user’s “country or region may not be accurate.”
X did not respond to a request for comment on the release.
X is not the first social network to provide this level of transparency to users. Instagram has been offering for a while now a similar “About this account” feature.for example.
