this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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Elon Musk’s social media site X has rolled out a new feature in an effort to increase transparency—and unwittingly revealed that many of the site’s top MAGA influencers are actually foreign actors.

The new “About This Account” feature, which became available to X users on Friday, allows others to see where an account is based, when they joined the platform, how often they have changed their username, and how they downloaded the X app.

Dozens of major accounts masquerading as “America First” or “MAGA” proponents have been identified as originating in places such as Russia, India, and Nigeria.

In one example, the account MAGANationX—with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading “Patriot Voice for We The People”—is actually based in Eastern Europe.

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[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 205 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I don't think this is much of a surprise to anyone. What's more interesting to me is that X/Twitter just proved they had the information to know this was going on all along and consequently must have chosen not to intervene. That should raise serious questions of the legal variety.

[–] some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 62 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Maybe if we weren’t living in post-law America…

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 28 points 3 days ago

Well, fortunately I'm not, but I get what you're saying.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is actually exactly why Musk did it. It’s not a good faith attempt at transparency… It’s straight up “cover your ass” liability shifting. X has been accused of unfettered propaganda in recent election cycles, and this is just an attempt to go “hey, it’s the user’s fault if they fall for the propaganda. All of the info was there for them to find.”

[–] Lag@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

Or Musk wants something and he's threatening the orange.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago

Not to anyone who’s been paying attention. I just met another tankie who professes to have no idea about it so the more common knowledge the better.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

Maybe if we didn’t live in a literal tinpot dictatorship.

People should just burn down Twitters data centers and offices. Like South Park showed us.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 79 points 3 days ago

The world's richest man is paying people in developing countries to stoke racism and division in the US is a factual statement

[–] Greddan@feddit.org 77 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Didn't this also reveal that the Department of Homeland Security twitter account is ran from Israel?

[–] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 89 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nah that one was a fake. Funny though

[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 35 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's not far off being true though lmao

Yeah. Definitely a core truth in it

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 62 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Billionaires are all criminals. Prison

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I agree, except that you spelt guillotine incorrectly...

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

The only way to solve society's problems is to [redacted; my lawyers have advised me not to finish this sentence for legal reasons]

[–] vegeta@lemmy.world 61 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] Ulvain@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] AugustWest@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] drzoidberg@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 26 points 3 days ago (4 children)

collapsed inline media

This is what it looks like on my client, and I felt the world needed to see what Absolutely Blasted Pikachu looks like

That Pikachu hurt itself in confusion.

[–] drzoidberg@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

That's fucking great lol

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[–] shittydwarf@piefed.social 54 points 3 days ago

Wait till you find out who's paying them

[–] ZeroGravitas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Accidentally" my foot, the one with bells on it. The engineers knew.

Whether Elon knew and green-lit it, or even ordered the move as payback for his unceremonious departure from DOGE is anyone's guess. But I stand by what I said earlier, this was intentional - and more power to whoever pushed it to production.

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[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 2 days ago

Just like the one time reddit released its statistics and the top location was from a US army base.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160406094911/http://www.redditblog.com/2013/05/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day.html

That was in 2013. Reddit stopped publishing these stats after this. Imagine how large the astroturfing is now.

Yakistanis who think it’s everyone against them is fucking poetic.

Have some of your own medicine, why don't you?

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Hey, would you look at that.

The FBI's first and foremost job is national security interests, particularly on identifing foreign actors in the state. The feds got played lmfao

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Lmao nah. Feds are in on it

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

"FBI Agent"

Looks inside the badge

Its just FSB lmao

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Kash Patel's FBI? A drunk raccoon could outplay them.

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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

I like how the DHS account was from Israel.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago

The majority are fucking Putin bots or from Xi's 50 Cent Army. Leon Hitler can F-himself too.

[–] Inucune@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

Maga people are reverting back to 'I don't like/want to talk about politics."

Nature is ~~healing~~ stagnating again.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Welcome to the internet? Anonymity allows anyone to pretend to be anything, so they are more the carrier of a message than some authenticity based on a name. And where there is a market for a message, people will consume without regard for who said it, or even often without validating the message itself. Caveat emptor baby.

[–] watson@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

“ the knife was right there, your honor! How could anyone expect me not to start stabbing everyone around me? “

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Everybody knows the power behind this is Russia. But nobody mentions it?

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[–] TomArrr@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Wasn’t one of his biggest complaints when he bought Twitter was the number of bot accounts? That went well. And I'm assuming most pay $5 month, so he's making bank from them.

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[–] III@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

Quick, now do Truth Social

[–] mrmanager@lemmy.today 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Now do the origin of bot accounts pushing topics to the top here on Lemmy.

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[–] madjo@feddit.nl 10 points 3 days ago

I'm shocked! SHOCKED! well, not that shocked.

[–] Ordinary_Person@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago

So just confirming what we already knew since this kind of bullshit has been exposed several times already.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

wait you mean the fact that we call them influencers and the fact that they are literal widget shills and the fact that they push out political propaganda are all related 😯

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

No surprise here. A good part of them are probably Russian, anyway.

[–] acme401@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

How the fuck does Musk have security clearance is fucking beyond me

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