Elon Musk’s X has begun rolling out a new characteristic for consumer profiles that can show details about the account, together with the place it’s primarily based, what number of instances the account has modified its username, the account’s unique be a part of date, and the way the consumer downloaded the X app. The brand new data is supposed to cut back inauthentic engagement on the platform, the place bots usually faux to be people — an issue that might get even more durable to police within the age of AI.
X’s plans for the characteristic had been first introduced in October, when X’s head of product Nikita Bier stated the corporate would experiment with displaying this data on profiles, beginning along with his personal account and people of X staff. The thought is that, by exposing these particulars, customers would be capable to make a extra knowledgeable choice about whether or not they’re interacting with an genuine account or if the account was a bot or dangerous actor, seeking to sow discord or unfold misinformation.
As an example, if an X account’s bio claimed the consumer was from a U.S. state, however their account data reveals that they’re primarily based abroad, you would possibly suspect they’d one other agenda.
Final weekend, Bier responded to a publish the place a consumer had requested Elon Musk to require accounts to show details about the place they’re primarily based by saying to the consumer, “Give me 72 hours.”
Within the days since, extra folks have seen the “About this account” characteristic turn out to be obtainable on their very own profiles.
To view your account data on the net or within the X cellular app, you’ll click on on the “Joined” date in your profile. From right here, you’re taken to a web page that reveals the date you joined Twitter/X, the place your account is predicated, what number of username modifications have been completed and when the final one was, and the way you’re related to X — like by way of the U.S. App Retailer or Google Play, as an illustration.
However whereas some customers globally are reporting that the characteristic has appeared on their very own profiles, TechCrunch will not be in a position to entry this account data on different folks’s profiles as of press time. That might be as a result of X needs to present customers time to preview their data for accuracy and regulate their settings earlier than it rolls out extra broadly.
Particularly, X permits customers to regulate whether or not or not the characteristic shows their nation or if it solely shows their geographical area. Initially, the corporate had stated this might be an choice in areas the place free speech may have penalties, however we’re discovering that even U.S. customers can select to set their profile to show both their nation or their area/continent. (Nation is the default, nevertheless.)
To make the change, you possibly can entry the “About your account” setting below the X app’s “Privateness and Security” settings.
One reverse engineer digging via the app’s code (see under) additionally discovered that X seems to be engaged on a further characteristic that may show a warning in your account in the event you had been utilizing a VPN to masks your location. It’s unclear if or when that characteristic would go reside, but when it does, it might flag to others that the consumer’s “nation or area might not be correct.”
X didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the rollout. Nevertheless, Bier joked about all of the latest sightings, indicating that folks had been seeing the characteristic because it started to roll out.
X will not be the primary social community to offer this degree of transparency to customers. Instagram has lengthy provided the same “About this account” characteristic, as an illustration.
