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  3. /X begins rolling out 'About this account' location feature to users' profiles
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  2. /Story
  3. /X begins rolling out 'About this account' location feature to users' profiles
Nov 23, 2025 at 10:49 AM EST

X begins rolling out 'About this account' location feature to users' profiles

xqcgrek2
22 points
6 comments

Mood

calm

Sentiment

neutral

Category

other

Key topics

General

Discussion Activity

Light discussion

First comment

2h

Peak period

5

Hour 3

Avg / period

2.2

Comment distribution26 data points
Loading chart...

Based on 26 loaded comments

Key moments

  1. 01Story posted

    Nov 23, 2025 at 10:49 AM EST

    16h ago

    Step 01
  2. 02First comment

    Nov 23, 2025 at 12:19 PM EST

    2h after posting

    Step 02
  3. 03Peak activity

    5 comments in Hour 3

    Hottest window of the conversation

    Step 03
  4. 04Latest activity

    Nov 24, 2025 at 2:10 AM EST

    45m ago

    Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (6 comments)
Showing 26 comments
explodes
14h ago
3 replies
I welcome this change. I wonder what the actual resulting impact will be, however.
hbarka
13h ago
4 replies
Don’t wonder, it’s obvious. When you turn on the light you see the cockroaches. Any transparency changes incentives. Look how the dynamics have changed overnight. Next, Twitter has to do something about the rage engagement payola.

Why product managers overseeing any forum platform have not implemented something easy and obvious as account location metadata is something sociologists need to study.

IncreasePosts
10h ago
Maybe because it is so easy to fake, that putting that signal on there lends undue credence to it.
bastawhiz
13h ago
I mean, if I owned the house, I wouldn't want the lights coming on and the cockroaches being visible. To me the question is less about whether this was a reasoned change, or whether this was an Elon idea, like banning people for posting their Mastadon/bsky handles that'll be rolled back.
karlgkk
12h ago
> Why product managers overseeing any forum platform have not implemented something easy and obvious as account location metadata is something sociologists need to study.

This was a common-ish feature for a long time and major sites like 4chan have had it in one form or another I think for literally decades at this point.

Nextgrid
12h ago
> Why product managers overseeing any forum platform have not implemented something easy and obvious as account location metadata is something sociologists need to study.

All social platforms of the last decade rely on "engagement" and bots/trolls/fake accounts/etc contribute to that, both directly and in terms of posting inflammatory content that the masses then "engage" with.

add-sub-mul-div
13h ago
1 reply
In six months they'll make hiding your location a feature of the paid subscription.
signatoremo
13h ago
1 reply
Well, a hidden location would be a signal too
verdverm
12h ago
Could become an in group signal, essential creating so much noise the signal is no longer valuable

one can imagine the influencers saying they X is lying or I fear for my safety and them the whole bandwagon joining in

genter
13h ago
1 reply
We get to see this:

https://www.threads.com/@timmy_tostada/post/DRaGc3PDwSh

mc32
11h ago
I think it’s obvious these kinds of accounts were for engagement. Happy to see grifter accounts from two bit locales exposed for what they are.
gryn
12h ago
2 replies
so they'll pay for VPNs/Proxies with residential IPs in their desired location. heck twitter will probably later offer you an option to buy it themselves.
SmirkingRevenge
11h ago
2 replies
I assume most accounts getting exposed now basically started with the assumption that this info would not be exposed publicly, but they will adapt.

So this is like a one time shot of transparency, that will quickly be useless (although I’ve been hearing it has been rolled back already - some speculation is because it exposed that the majority of MAGA boosters were not US based)

kardianos
10h ago
2 replies
No, it exposed the groypers and racists masquerading as MAGA or conservatives who are from foreign countries.
AuthAuth
9h ago
Whats the difference? Both groups are firmly MAGA and supported by MAGA.
IncreasePosts
10h ago
Yeah, and they will delete their accounts and start over, only logging in when they're on a US terminated VPN.

Whoever was following these people aren't taking a hard look at themselves in the mirror now. They're just searching out the same content that is "really" American.

Seattle3503
2h ago
Some sort of mdl scheme where people can verify their location without disclosing their entire identity would be nice.
tguvot
8h ago
1 reply
I believe Twitter shows if account uses vpn
skinnymuch
3h ago
How would you know a residential ip vpn is a vpn? Twitter won’t.
gradientsrneat
10h ago
2 replies
Way too many social media CEOs claim that if they just force their users to dox themselves, that it will somehow prevent all the toxic engagement. You need look no further than Facebook to see where it goes. Not only does the toxicity not go away, but Facebook makes tons of money off political ads and "boosted" posts; they even have had an office of sorts in China, where Facebook is banned, for the purpose of making it easier for Chinese to sell ads/engagement on Facebook. And it's not just China doing this.

I'd reckon Twitter's long-term goal isn't to make the trolls go away, but to pay for the privilege of visibility.

paulddraper
9h ago
1 reply
> You need look no further than Facebook to see where it goes.

FB has required real identities for a long, long time.

I don’t think that case study provides a good before/after analysis.

——

People are “toxic” in general. They kill each other.

But removing anonymity reduces it.

worthless-trash
2h ago
Then you can just find the enemy easier to kill.
baiac
9h ago
1 reply
I disagree. Knowing where an account is from helps gauge its authenticity.
thrwaway55
8h ago
All it does is open second order businesses faking the authenticity
ChrisArchitect
45m ago
Related:

X's new country-of-origin feature reveals many 'US' accounts to be foreign-run

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46028422

abcd_f
10h ago
Wasn't this already rolled back by Musk after it surfaced way too many prominent "US" accounts being based in Russia and Asia?
View full discussion on Hacker News
ID: 46024417Type: storyLast synced: 11/23/2025, 6:49:39 PM

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