Dozens of pro-Russia and anti-EU accounts on X have been accused of misleading users after the platform rolled out a new transparency feature revealing where profiles are posting from, how they downloaded the app and when they joined.
The “about this account” tab, now visible on every profile, shows a user’s reported location. X warns that the feature may not be accurate, and can be affected by VPNs, travel or temporary relocations.
“This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X,” announced the platform’s head of product, Nikita Bier, amidst longstanding criticism that fake and automated accounts flood X with misinformation.
The Cube, Euronews’ fact-checking team, could not independently verify the locations of X profiles.
Russian war bloggers ‘post from Ireland’
Since the update, X users have identified a cluster of Russian war bloggers whose accounts repeatedly post updates from inside Russia, yet X lists their locations as Ireland.
One example is Maryana Naumova, a Russian powerlifter turned “war correspondent” with more than 14,000 followers, whose stream of content shows her interviewing Russian soldiers and civilians.
Her most recent posts include clips linked from Rutube, a Russian video platform, claiming to locate her in the Russian town of Gorodets.
However, X’s data says Naumova is not in Russia, but in Ireland. X warns that her account shows signs she could be using a VPN that might inaccurately represent her actual location.
She’s one of several Russian war bloggers whose locations say they are in Russia, but whose X data traces them back to Ireland. Combined, they have thousands of followers.
Is the tool reliable?
Bier described the rollout as having some “rough edges”, adding that incorrect details would be “updated periodically based on best available information”.
By 24 November, he claimed the tool was “nearly 99.9% accurate”.
But Euronews can confirm notable inconsistencies. Over the weekend, the official Euronews account was incorrectly listed as being located in the United States. By Tuesday, this had shifted to France, where the company was founded and still has offices.
Experts have also noted that the platform provides no access to methods used to determine a user’s location, making its accuracy difficult to independently verify.
“It can be a useful tool for improving transparency as long as the data is accurate,” Philipp Darius, a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance, told The Cube. “But X should restore researchers’ access to its Research API and make the location data available there as well.”
“However, depending on the granularity, it can also cause privacy and security risks to users, for example, for journalists’ accounts in authoritarian states,” he added. “Without insight into the processes, it’s quite difficult. If X doesn’t share its methods, the data can’t be tested outside the platform.”
Darius also warned that a clustering of multiple accounts in one location could indicate a large VPN provider operating there, rather than provide clues about a user’s real location.
“Many Russian bloggers are very active online, but in Russia, many social media platforms are blocked. So people often use VPN services to re-route their internet traffic,” he told The Cube.
But whilst some users might be hiding their true location for personal or security reasons, others may be part of coordinated efforts.
“There can be many motives and backgrounds possible,” Darius said. “So this can reach from individuals, to organised influence campaigns, such as disinformation campaigns, to individuals with financial motivations, maybe to build a higher follower count and monetise posts.”
‘Unfiltered insights’ on Russia
The update has nevertheless provoked X users to point out how several large anonymous accounts have locations that do not necessarily match what they post, and raised questions about potentially fake and automated accounts.
A collection of accounts that post regular updates and photos about Russia, President Vladimir Putin and negative posts and videos about Ukraine and its politicians are all, according to X, not based in Russia.
Moscow has long been accused of sponsoring anonymous internet political commentators and trolls to orchestrate large-scale disinformation campaigns that spread pro-Putin and Kremlin propaganda online.
One account with more than 225,000 followers titled “RussiaNews” claims to be based in St Petersburg. X shows its location as the United Arab Emirates. The account has changed its username 10 times since it joined.
Another, a self-proclaimed spoof account titled “Vladimir Putin News”, is based in South Asia, according to X, although it clarifies in its biography that it isn’t based in Russia. A third, titled “Russian Army” with more than 69,000 followers, is also based in south Asia.
‘European’ accounts not in Europe?
The Cube has also found several accounts promoting negative content about migrants and the European Union whose locations X lists as outside Europe, despite the profiles presenting themselves as European.
One account under the name of Laure Krause posts in German under the tagline “News from Europe and the World”. Its updates cover a wide range of topics and regularly highlight crimes committed by asylum seekers or migrants.
Krause’s supposed channel says it’s based in “the EU”. However, X’s location data places it in western Asia.
Similarly, the account “Based Hungary” that claims to be based in northwestern Romania, and frequently shares anti-EU posts aligned with Hungarian government narratives, is listed by X as being in North America. The account has changed its username nine times since 2022.
Monetisation incentives
The majority of the accounts the Cube found to have locations incompatible with their profiles also had blue ticks and therefore subscribed to X’s premium feature, which allows users to potentially earn money from posts.
X users need to have at least 500 verified followers and 5 million impressions in the last three months to start monetising their content.
According to Darius, financial motives could indeed be a possible reason an account may be utilising a politically divisive topic from a totally different location to drive up clicks.
Political motives or organised influence campaigns are, however, not out of reach. Accounts posting from unexpected locations, particularly the Global South, may reflect the presence of English-speaking click workers employed at lower labour costs for information campaigns.
“Many of these false accounts present themselves as, for example, a Trump supporter and a mother from the Midwest, but they may actually be steered by foreign actors with strategic interests,” Darius said.
“Platforms have historically failed to conduct proper accountability checks on profiles or advertisements, especially when stricter checks might reduce their earnings,” he added. Identity verification on social media has also been criticised as weak, with multiple opportunities for users to exploit loopholes.
Overall, the tool may have temporarily increased transparency, but it is likely easy to circumvent.
“Whenever new rules are introduced, people adapt,” Darius said. “We may see more users relying on VPNs and routing their traffic through the United States.”
“But that comes with greater friction, because US IP addresses are more heavily monitored and often trigger additional CAPTCHAs or security checks,” he added.
