Elon Musk’s new X feature was supposed to fix the platform, but it just exposed the MAGA movement’s most mortifying secret

Elon Musk’s new transparency feature on X (earlier known as ‘Twitter), called “about this account,” has inadvertently exposed a significant and mortifying secret: many of the most influential personalities in Trump’s MAGA movement who present themselves as patriotic Americans are actually operating from outside the United States, including countries like Russia, Nigeria, and India, as per the Guardian.

This new tool became available to users on Friday. Thanks to it, anyone can quickly check an account’s location, when it joined X, how many times its username has changed, and how the user downloaded the app.

This is easily a top-tier feature for anyone trying to cut through the noise online. The moment the update rolled out, users started digging, and they found numerous right-wing influencers who claimed to be dedicated US patriots were actually operating globally.

The revelations about the most loud MAGA voices on the internet are pretty staggering

Take, for example, the popular profile IvankaNews. This account is dedicated to Ivanka Trump and boasts about one million followers. It frequently posts content focused on illegal immigration, Islam, and strong support for President Trump. However, the feature revealed that this account is actually based in Nigeria.

Then there’s MAGANationX, a profile with nearly 400,000 followers. Its bio proudly reads, “Patriot Voice for We The People,” but according to the Daily Beast, this influential voice is operated from eastern Europe. This is awful for the credibility of the MAGA movement, especially after its largest blowbacks, when the loudest “patriot voices” aren’t even based in the country they claim to represent.

Users didn’t stop there. They quickly uncovered several other cases of misrepresentation. Dark Maga, a smaller account with roughly 15,000 followers, is run from Thailand. MAGA Scope, which has over 51,000 followers, also operates out of Nigeria. Plus, the profile MAGA Beacon was found to be based in South Asia.

The public reaction to these exposures has been intense, especially among those who have long warned about foreign influence operations. Liberal influencer Harry Sisson summed up the sentiment perfectly, writing, “This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform. 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.”

This specific issue of foreign accounts masquerading as domestic political voices highlights a much larger, long-running problem on X. Bots and accounts spreading misinformation and propaganda have been a major headache for years. Since Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X, this problem has only been exacerbated. We’ve also seen issues with the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok, which has frequently been found to make and amplify false claims.

The new “about this account” feature, while intended to improve transparency, simply shined a spotlight on how extensive the foreign influence operation is within US political discourse on the platform. Ironically, it also shines a light on President Trump’s current relationship with Elon Musk.