Elon Musk’s X has begun rolling out a new feature for user profiles that will display information about the account, including where it’s based, how many times the account has changed its username, the account’s original join date, and how the user downloaded the X app. The new information is meant to reduce inauthentic engagement on the platform, where bots often pretend to be humans — a problem that could get even harder to police in the age of AI.
X’s plans for the feature were first announced in October, when X’s head of product Nikita Bier said the company would experiment with displaying this information on profiles, starting with his own account and those of X employees. The idea is that, by exposing these details, users would be able to make a more informed decision about whether they’re interacting with an authentic account or if the account was a bot or bad actor, looking to sow discord or spread misinformation.
For instance, if an X account’s bio claimed the user was from a U.S. state, but their account information shows that they’re based overseas, you might suspect they had another agenda.
Last weekend, Bier responded to a post where a user had asked Elon Musk to require accounts to display information about where they’re based by saying to the user, “Give me 72 hours.”
In the days since, more people have seen the “About this account” feature become available on their own profiles.
To view your account information on the web or in the X mobile app, you’ll click on the “Joined” date on your profile. From here, you’re taken to a page that shows the date you joined Twitter/X, where your account is based, how many username changes have been done and when the last one was, and how you’re connected to X — like via the U.S. App Store or Google Play, for instance.
But while some users globally are reporting that the feature has appeared on their own profiles, TechCrunch is not able to access this account information on other people’s profiles as of press time. That could be because X wants to give users time to preview their information for accuracy and adjust their settings before it rolls out more broadly.
Specifically, X allows users to adjust whether or not the feature displays their country or if it only displays their geographical region. Originally, the company had said this would be an option in areas where free speech could have penalties, but we’re finding that even U.S. users can choose to set their profile to display either their country or their region/continent. (Country is the default, however.)
To make the change, you can access the “About your account” setting under the X app’s “Privacy and Safety” settings.
One reverse engineer digging through the app’s code (see below) also found that X appears to be working on an additional feature that would display a warning on your account if you were using a VPN to mask your location. It’s unclear if or when that feature would go live, but if it does, it would flag to others that the user’s “country or region may not be accurate.”
X did not respond to a request for comment about the rollout. However, Bier joked about all the recent sightings, indicating that people were seeing the feature as it began to roll out.
X is not the first social network to provide this level of transparency to users. Instagram has long offered a similar “About this account” feature, for instance.
