Elon Musk’s social media echo chamber X-formerly-Twitter introduced a new feature over the weekend that shows the location where its users have been tweeting from — a move that has exposed an embarrassing problem for the social network: that many of its most politically inflammatory users are actually foreign scammers cashing in on gullible and outrage-hungry Americans.
As the New York Times reports, it didn’t take long for online sleuths to notice that accounts that post MAGA ragebait weren’t actually tweeting from the United States; instead, they’re based in Eastern Europe, Thailand, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and other parts of the world, often linked to online scams and schemes.
For instance, one account that pays for the platform’s blue checkmark “verification” service, called “MAGA NATION,” is based in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU).” The account has shy of 400,000 followers and, as its name suggests, furthers an extreme-right agenda.
A separate account called Dark Maga was found to be tweeting from Thailand, per The Guardian. Another, called MAGA Scope, is posting from Nigeria.
One Ivanka Trump fan account, called IvankaNews, which has since been suspended, regularly posted far-right content and had a million followers. According to the new feature, the account was based in Nigeria, as the Daily Beast reports.
Even worse, any of the MAGA accounts appear to be harnessing generative AI for their scams.
“It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort ragebait,” journalist Derek Guy wrote. “My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.”
The fracas perfectly illustrates what has become of X-formerly-Twitter since Musk took it over in 2022. Experts have observed a massive surge in hate speech, including antisemitism and racism, on the platform, in large part thanks to its flailing content moderation efforts.
Musk has also used the platform to post hateful content and conspiracy theories himself, setting a problematic tone overall.
The platform also has a storied history of being manipulated by foreign influence campaigns. For instance, last year, an independent think tank, the Centre for Information Resilience, noted that fake MAGA accounts were being used to influence the 2024 presidential election.
It’s no wonder that it’s a popular target. For one, thanks to its purchasable “verification” badge system instituted by Musk, accounts can easily make themselves appear legitimate to the platform’s user base. Musk also altered the platform so that accounts that draw heavy engagement can receive monetary payments — a system that quickly made the type of outrage farming exposed by the new feature a profitable enterprise.
The many changes haven’t exactly turned out to be a major draw for new users. A recent Pew Research Center poll suggests the platform’s use has stagnated since Musk took over.
The recent outing of MAGA accounts threw fuel on an already raging fire. X-formerly-Twitter users on the left were outraged in light of the latest news.
“This is total armageddon for the online right,” one user wrote. “It’s looking like half of their large accounts were foreigners posing as Americans all along.”
Others celebrated the revelation as a positive change.
“This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform,” influencer Harry Sisson tweeted. “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.”
The new feature triggered chaos, with users conspiratorially arguing that certain legitimate accounts were also part of foreign influence campaigns.
“I can’t believe we have to say this, but this account has only ever been run and operated from the United States,” the US Department of Homeland Security’s official account tweeted after users accused it of being run from Israel.
Others criticized Musk’s laissez-faire approach to moderation.
“There’s a reason why major social media platforms, including Twitter pre-Elon, spent time and resources on ‘countering foreign influence’ or ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior,'” tech journalist Mike Masnick wrote.
Some were happy enough to consume the slop, real or not.
“I would be baffled that people were naive enough to think these accounts were real — but in many cases, I think people deliberately turned a blind eye to this on here, because they weren’t really interested in some kind of collective debate or truth-seeking,” tech CEO John Loeber tweeted.
“People weren’t here for that,” he added. “They’re here for entertainment. And so they treat the paid shills, foreign psyops, and third-world ragebaiters as real, next-door accounts. Why? Because they don’t care and it’s more entertaining.”
More on Twitter: Twitter Use Has Stagnated Pathetically Under Elon Musk
