Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, has introduced the country of origin feature that seems to have thrown both the MAGA and Democrats' worlds online into chaos. Several profiles online, that had pushed certain narratives are now being found to have been operating from outside the US.
The social media platform introduced a feature where one can see the country the account is based in. One has to head to an account and click on the date joined tab, which opens up onto a new page. This shows the country where that particular account is being operated from. While the feature was briefly removed after its introduction, it has now been added again, and both sides of the political spectrum are having a field day, calling out each other online.
What to know about ‘American’ accounts based out of US
The accounts being discussed here have pushed agendas within the US, and commented on US politics regularly. Many are also named to echo political movements, like some MAGA accounts.
However, these ‘political influencers’ have been found to be based outside the US, raising questions about the motives.
One profile going by 'MAGA NATION' with a follower count of over 392,000, is based out of eastern Europe. Similarly, ‘Dark Maga’ a page with over 15,000 followers is based out of Thailand. ‘MAGA Scope’ which boasts over 51,000 followers is actually operated out of Nigeria, and ‘America First’, an account with over 67,000 followers is based out of Bangladesh.
“At this time thousands of MAGA-aligned influencer accounts and large political pages that claim to be based in the U.S. are now being investigated and exposed with many of them traced to India, Nigeria, and other countries,” a news aggregator page on X noted.
It wasn't just on the MAGA side. An account going by ‘Ron Smith’ whose bio claims he's a ‘Proud Democrat’ and ‘Professional MAGA hunter’ is operated out of Kenya. The account has over 52,000 followers.
‘Republicans against Trump’ an anti-Donald Trump page on X, which tries to push politics against MAGA, was reportedly operating out of Austria. While the location now shows US, X notes that the account location might not be accurate due to use of VPN. “The Anti-Trump account “Republicans Against Trump” which 1M followed has been identified as a non-American from Austria and is currently using a VPN to hide their location,” a page said, making note of this.
‘Republicans against Trump’ has over 978,000 followers.
On a side note, an account going by ‘Mariana Times’, with over 78,000 followers, which posts pro-Israel content has been found to be based out of India.
People within the MAGA orbit have also reacted to this new feature. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X from her personal account, “All of these pretend “pro-America” accounts that were pushing infighting within Maga are literally foreign grifters. I’m telling you, the foreign opp is real and so are the bot accounts.”
Alexis Wilkins, FBI director Kash Patel's girlfriend, also added, “I hope that everyone sees, regardless of their specific reason, that the enemy is outside of the house. The people posing as Americans with big American opinions but are actually operating from a basement across the world have one common goal - to destroy the United States. We have our issues, but we really can’t allow them to succeed.”