Edit 3: The Daily Beast has now confirmed some locations in the tweet:
Dozens of major accounts masquerading as “America First” or “MAGA” proponents have been identified as originating in places such as Russia, India, and Nigeria.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-maga-influencers-accidentally-unmasked-as-foreign-actors/
Edit 2: Here is another one from a commenter in the comments. Again, take locations with a grain of salt:
A large number of MAGA social media influencers were exposed over the weekend as being being based in other countries.
Internet erupts as MAGA influencers exposed for being based in other countries
Edit: This was reported as having zero citations and they’re right. I haven’t had my coffee yet. Because I was interested, I did find this article about it saying that it was removed quickly. Please take this with a grain of salt as to the locations.
It’s unclear exactly why X quickly removed the feature shortly after rolling it out to the public. However, Bier replied to some X users who were reporting that their “About this account” was showing inaccurate information, which may be the reason why the feature was taken down.
We’ll soon find out if Musk’s social media platform reinstates the feature.
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-x-rolls-out-country-of-origin-profiles-then-removes-it
This is attracting a lot of trolls. I’m going to leave it up for a little while, but don’t take the bait please. If I see bait, I’m removing the chain, not just the OG comment.
lol there’s a conspiracy going around that Muskrat did it on purpose to humiliate Trump. Something about something he said at the State dinner?
Shouldn’t the result humiliate Musk more than Trump? Musk is the one responsible for the integrity of his platform.
I don’t think he has this "integrity"concept we used tto value.
That’s what happens when you monetize engagement…
I don’t live in america, nor want to, yet I’m also wanting to influence the americans…to do something about the orange kiddie fiddling rapist that they voted in, twice!
Save yourself. That place is a lost cause.
Honestly, I don’t care what happens over there. I just want that disgusting piece of shit to feel some serious consequences before he dies (…of a painful and incurable disease, hopefully)
Real, it’s like trying to save the Roman Empire at this point lol
Same. Whatever happens in USA tends to rub off on Europe, either through cultural impact, or through propaganda.
Sadly, as fucked up as it is, america has an influence on MANY cultures and societies. What happens in that barren wasteland affects soooo many other countries.
More like fear-ridden shithole. But potato tomato.
If america has a vold, the rest of the world gets sick. And right now, it’s bleeding out of the asshole.
We still have our lovely national parks… For now… Culturally though, eugh.
I’ve always wanted to visit yellowstone national park, but you couldn’t pay me to go to the USA.
It is a very pretty and strange place. I enjoyed the time I got to spend there.
There’s an old saying that when the USA sneezes the world catches a cold. What happens when it gets syphilis?
“Let’s hide everything in the midst of fog so we can continue with our fuckery.”. At least Elon learned something from the americans.
Removed by mod
Grok is this real
Looks like someone asked Grok and archived it for posterity. https://archive.is/kM8aq
Based
Cock is this real
Hard to say — let’s check Pornhub for relevant citations.
…beep, boop … No, this can’t be real, because it would be stupid and utterly unscrupulous deception of users. So it can’t be real, since X is owned by Elon Musk, the most handsome, responsible, and intelligent person in the world. … boop, boop…
/s
See also:
Internet erupts as MAGA influencers exposed for being based in other countries
and
Elon Musk’s X rolls out feature that shows users’ country of origin – then suddenly removes it
Mashable said it’s because users were reporting innacuracies for their own locations, and Raw Story doesn’t have any metrics to support their claim… as usual. I couldn’t find anything on the number of maga accounts from other countries.
Not to say astroturfing isn’t happening, there’s foreign interference for sure and some of those screenshots are probably legit. It’s just more likely that Xitter’s broken and their new feature didn’t work.
хеллоу феллоу тексанс, хау ду ю ду?
Yes, it’s very likely that it’s broken in a very peculiar sort of way that thinks MAGA posts are from three specific countries, one of them being Russia.
To quote what I just wrote:
Not to say astroturfing isn’t happening, there’s foreign interference for sure and some of those screenshots are probably legit.
Where can I find out how many maga accounts were from those three countries?
If this were 15 years ago, sure, I’d accept that “it’s just more likely that Xitter’s broken” but not now. Not after the shenanigans Musk has played over and over. The benefit of the doubt is gone for that fascist.
Yes, it may well be that they have once again released an unfinished, flawed feature far too early.
I’m not saying that it’s necessarily due to the possibly unintended transparency regarding right-wing extremist accounts. It’s just that it apparently led to some accounts being visible as being maintained from abroad, even though they insist so much on “America first” and so on. I just wanted to point out that it’s a strange coincidence that this feature was immediately withdrawn as soon as this apparently became visible to the users.
Of course, there may be other reasons for rolling back this feature, but with Musk, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it with regards to his political allies, since he clearly has an agenda that aligns with this kind of ideology (astroturfing or not).
I can’t judge this myself because I stay as far away from xitter as possible. So I only know what I’ve seen in the media reports – and I don’t think there’s much reliable information out there.
So yes, it’s speculation, but it doesn’t seem impossible at all that the situation is as described in the post. I just wanted to back this up with some other sources that aren’t xitter.
My issue wasn’t with the claim, it was with the supporting evidence. Raw Story doesn’t have a great fact checking record, and I couldn’t find anything to support the number of maga accounts that turned out to be foreign.
Not saying I don’t believe it, just saying I’m skeptical until I see credible data.
I asked grok
Then I’m afraid you’re in the wrong place… here there are only unfunny comments from unfunny people like me :)
Is this real or satire? God I hate that I ask this at least once a week
Uh I thought we knew about MAGA being fuelled by Russian propaganda farms 9 years ago lol
This is real
Is there any source for this huge accusation that isn’t a blurry picture of text from someone you’ve never heard of? Come on Lemmy, you’re better than this.
Thats what i usually come to the comments for but ive found a lot of comments are just riding the confirmation bias so I either have to check myself or forget about it because im tired boss
Bad news, everyone. We have detected cockroaches in the kitchen.
The good news is that we just turned off the lights, so now we can’t see them.
America did that for COVID, which is why we had such low numbers.
Oh and all those COVID deaths? Natural causes.
Holy moley, that’s a perfect metaphor, because we all know how cockroach behavior & numbers accelerate when they’re in the dark.
Turning the lights off does not matter anymore, because these accounts glow in the dark. Thats what they look like right now:
Good to see Elon end up revealing this.
Hopefully news agencies run with it, but their CEOs and chairmen seem to be largely complicit.
The fact that only Cambridge Analytica has been investigated for manipulation is a testament to how widespread it is, and that Elon Musk was able to buy Twitter without consequence was just reality smearing it all over our faces.
Remember. Elon is a problematic drug addict but Twitter had this information long before he was in charge and they were perfectly content with this fact.
Tech companies are not your friend and don’t give a shit about your cause or your morals.
I think the amusing part is Musk didn’t bother to check over that data before saying it should go live. Mean I’m pretty sure I saw it was removed soon after, but I was mostly skimming. Think he’s knows enough that 10mins is all the Internet needs., and 10min is generous.
Seriously what person who manipulates social platforms wouldn’t think, well let’s give this data a once over for the big voices I want amplified?
It may be an oversight but it’s more likely he’s not overly intelligent. Seriously when manipulation via social media is a goal that’s a pretty high fucking priority. Like he should have a report from a team checking that out before it went live. Maybe he tried but fired anyone competent enough but if you’re a billionaire you should have a few (competent) teams ready for various tasks.
Eh that’s assuming he even knows what is going on at Twitter.
He purged like 75 percent of the company. The only ones left are the ones with no other options.
Pretty sure his focus is on getting Tesla to give him ever increasing compensation while it starts to circle the drain.
I agree but since he’s fired everyone I assume he must know if a ‘show origin location of accounts’ feature is released. If not, I’ll buy whoever that made that a reality a drink if it snuck by. They definitely deserve it. Though I can almost see it being some random person’s task for like a few years making sure it all works perfectly, finally tested and in production then…no job.
Even so, tip of the hat to them cause they inadvertently showed (not exactly of course) origin of accounts. Know we’re familiar with VPN but so many accounts coming out of country it’s like how the Russians work, hmm just a coincidence I’m sure. So kudos to whoever made this a fact.
They’d have been better off using VPNs from the US locations at the very least, if they were from VPNs anyways.
I imagine they contacted US authorities regarding this information on the back channels, a lot of social networks allow people to continue posting so they can “incriminate” themselves in regards to whatever interests they may be offending while having open contact with authorities.
No, tech companies are not your friends, and they can easily be compelled by the states they legally reside in without it ever becoming public knowledge.
