X Uncovers Influential Foreign Account Network Supporting the Far-Right

"About this Account" Feature: X, formerly known as Twitter, launched its new "About this Account" feature to enhance digital transparency. This feature revealed a surprising truth: many prominent influential accounts supporting the far-right and the "MAGA" movement are managed by foreign individuals.

Feature Information: The feature, currently available to X users, allows for viewing information such as account location, join date on the platform, name change history, and how the X application was downloaded.

Discovery of Foreign Accounts and Their Impact

Account Locations: Following the launch of X's new transparency feature, rival factions quickly examined the locations of their opponents' accounts. These investigations revealed that dozens of prominent influencer accounts supporting the MAGA movement and the far-right are located outside the United States, specifically in countries like Russia, India, Nigeria, and parts of Eastern Europe.

"MAGANationX" Account: As a prominent example, it was found that the "MAGANationX" account, which has nearly 400,000 followers and presents itself as "a national voice for the American people," is actually managed from Eastern Europe.

"IvankaNews_" Account: Another example is the "IvankaNews_" account, a fan account for Ivanka Trump followed by one million people, which publishes content supporting Trump and addressing issues such as "the dangers of Islam" and the threat of illegal immigration. It was found to be managed from Nigeria.

Warnings of Foreign Interference: Commentators described this revelation as "a real doomsday for the online far-right," thus confirming Democrats' ongoing warnings of foreign interference. The phenomenon of fake accounts aimed at fabricating support for individuals or ideologies has long been widespread globally. The Centre for Information Resilience, an independent non-profit research organization, also pointed to the use of bogus accounts to support the MAGA movement during the 2024 election campaign. This situation raises serious questions about the increasing influence of foreign powers in American politics.

Economic Incentives Behind Fabricated Engagement

Financial Compensation: Some content creators receive financial compensation for tweets that increase engagement on the X platform, providing them with an economic incentive.

Impact of US Dollars: For users in countries like Nigeria or Bangladesh, US dollars paid by X can have a significant positive impact on their living standards. X's payments depend on the level of engagement generated by verified and featured accounts with published content.

Feature Challenges and X's Corrections

New Feature Flaws: Nikita Bier, X's head of product development, acknowledged "some flaws" in the new feature, explaining that account location information can be changed using virtual private networks (VPN), and the company is working to address this vulnerability.

Tool Re-enablement: Despite earlier reports of the tool's removal just hours after its launch, amid speculation linking the removal to the exposure of far-right account origins, it has been re-enabled at the time of this writing.