Users posing as rightwing Americans are operating internationally, per the platform’s transparency feature
Many of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (MAGA) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed.
The new tool, called “about this account,” became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded. As soon as the update was rolled out, users found numerous MAGA and rightwing influencers who presented themselves as patriotic Americans were operating from other countries.
“This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform,” wrote liberal influencer Harry Sisson. “Seeing all of these MAGA accounts get exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States is a complete vindication of Democrats, like myself and many on here, who have been warning about this.”
Those “some” you mention are a miniscule minority.
That official US government account posting from Israel while a big political delegation is there right now? Sure.
Bigger numbers of very active MAGA influencers consistently posting from Russia or Nigeria? All those proud Irish “Celtic Warriors” posting from the US? Eastern European far-right politicians pushing Russian narratives and using Twitter through Russian apps? No, that’s a very obvious pattern.
So while your first about a global society is technically correct, it is definitely not the defining portion in this. And stressing “that can happen and is totally normal” when it’s an exception has the sour aftertaste of a diversion.