Elon Musk’s X has begun rolling out a new characteristic for person 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 person downloaded the X app. The brand new info is supposed to cut back inauthentic engagement on the platform, the place bots usually faux to be people — an issue that might get even tougher 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 info on profiles, beginning together with his personal account and people of X workers. The concept 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 unhealthy actor, seeking to sow discord or unfold misinformation.
As an illustration, if an X account’s bio claimed the person was from a U.S. state, however their account info exhibits that they’re primarily based abroad, you would possibly suspect that they had one other agenda.
Final weekend, Bier responded to a submit the place a person had requested Elon Musk to require accounts to show details about the place they’re primarily based by saying to the person, “Give me 72 hours.”
Within the days since, extra folks have seen the “About this Account” characteristic develop into accessible on their very own profiles.
To view your account info on the internet 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 exhibits the date you joined Twitter/X, the place your account is predicated, what number of username adjustments have been accomplished and when the final one was, and the way you’re linked to X — like by way of the U.S. App Retailer or Google Play, for example.
However whereas some customers globally are reporting that the characteristic has appeared on their very own profiles, TechCrunch just isn’t in a position to entry this account info on different folks’s profiles as of press time. That may very well be as a result of X desires to offer customers time to preview their info for accuracy and alter 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 could be an possibility 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 by the app’s code (see under) additionally discovered that X seems to be engaged on a further characteristic that will show a warning in your account for those who 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 could flag to others that the person’s “nation or area might not be correct.”
X didn’t reply to a request for remark in regards to the rollout.
X just isn’t the primary social community to supply this stage of transparency to customers. Instagram has lengthy provided an analogous “About this account” characteristic, for example.
