Elon Musk’s X has ignited a firestorm in the social-media trenches with its abrupt rollout—and partial retreat—of a feature revealing users’ countries of origin. Dubbed “About This Account,” the tool, accessible via a tap on a profile’s join date, displays an account’s base country, derived from signup IP addresses, app-store data and activity patterns. Launched globally on November 23, 2025, after a bug-plagued soft debut, it marks product chief Nikita Bier’s boldest bid yet to combat misinformation on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The feature arrives amid X’s ongoing battle to reclaim trust eroded since Musk’s 2022 acquisition. Blue checkmarks, once symbols of verification, morphed into paid perks, unleashing bot swarms and deepfake deluges. By mid-2025, X’s appeal among 18-to-29-year-olds had slipped to 33% from 42%, per industry surveys, as rivals like Meta’s Threads and ByteDance’s TikTok surged. Bier, the 28-year-old serial entrepreneur behind viral hits like the iPhone-crashing app Gas, teased the experiment on October 14 in a post viewed over 11 million times: “When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity. This is critical to getting a pulse on important issues happening in the world.” X post by Nikita Bier

Early screenshots from Bier’s own profile revealed “Based in: United States,” alongside app-store origins and username-change tallies. The design echoes Meta’s transparency tools but amps up granularity to unmask “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” from alleged Russian election influencers to Indian engagement farms masquerading as U.S. pundits.

Bier’s Viral Pedigree Fuels X’s Product Overhaul

Bier’s ascent at X underscores Musk’s appetite for disruptors. Hired in June 2025 as head of product, the founder of TBH and Gas brought a track record of apps that exploded via schoolyard memes before fading fast. Bloomberg reported his mandate: Transform X into a ‘global town square’ resilient to foreign meddling. Bier’s October posts framed country labels as foundational, with privacy toggles for repressive regimes allowing ‘region’ displays over precise nations.

On November 22, Bier announced the global push in a post amassing 4.6 million views: “In a couple hours, we’ll be rolling out About This Account globally… This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.” He credited engineers including @sandeep_rao and @singhai. Yet the preceding days were anything but smooth. X post by Nikita Bier

A stealth rollout on November 20-21 exposed raw edges. Profiles flickered with labels—pro-Israel commentator @BehizyTweets tagged “India,” U.S. Homeland Security briefly as “Israel.” VPNs and Musk’s Starlink mangled data, routing Americans to Ukraine and Israelis to India. Mashable detailed the overnight reversal, attributing it to ‘technical inaccuracies’ from proxies.

Stealth Launch Turns Users into Bug Hunters

Bier’s strategy was deliberate chaos. “Announce an upcoming feature / Go silent for 2 weeks / Suddenly launch it… Everyone posts screenshots, helping us advertise and spot bugs,” he later explained in replies. Memes proliferated: One user quipped, “LMFAOOOO this gotta be the one good thing Elon has done,” mocking a rival’s Indian base with 40,000 likes. Indian netizens decoded ‘South Asia’ as Pakistani bot-farms; U.S. MAGA voices demanded permanence to ‘expose foreign ops.’

By November 22 dawn, X paused the feature amid backlash. Privacy advocates warned of doxxing perils, while supporters like Rep. Matt Gaetz praised it in October as preserving the ‘global town square.’ X post by Nikita Bier Bier addressed VPN gripes, noting a month-old settings option for regions and viewability limited to one’s own profile initially.

The San Francisco Standard profiled Bier’s troll-hearted ethos, perfect for X’s experimental bent. Rollout disparities—Android first, iOS lagging—fueled uneven visibility, with server-side flags ensuring gradual expansion.

Geopolitical Fault Lines Emerge in Profile Data

The brief live window unearthed cross-border oddities: ‘Proud Democrat’ handles from Kenya, anti-Trump Republicans from Austria, GOP fakes from Nigeria. In India, it spotlighted ‘H1B haters’ tweeting from Pakistan or Bangladesh, per viral threads. The Whistler Newspaper tied it to October’s announcement as anti-misinfo armor.

Exemptions shielded officials, but parody accounts like ‘Mossad’ lit up from Bangladesh. Dead Internet theorists hailed revelations of Nigeria-based ‘Sam Elliott’ imposters. Critics foresaw harassment spikes; Bier’s team added disclaimers: “Location may not be precise due to VPNs.” Users now toggle via Settings > Privacy and Safety > About Your Account.

Engadget confirmed November 21 start, listing country, connections and username changes. The Economic Times framed it as bot-busting, akin to Instagram’s tools.

Engineering Feats and Privacy Tradeoffs

Implementation drew from signup IPs, app stores (spotting iOS vs. Android fakes) and activity. Bier’s November 23 reply clarified: “We thought about that: 1. The Region option has been available… 2. We made the feature viewable for only your own account since Wednesday.” X post by Nikita Bier

For high-risk users, region-only views mitigate backlash, echoing Bier’s nod to speech penalties in places like China or Iran. Access remains profile-centric: Tap ‘Joined [Month Year]’ below bios for the popup, bypassing searches.

If absent, it’s rollout lag—refresh, update apps or wait. Yahoo Tech noted base location, connections and edit history as core info.

Musk’s Silence and Broader Platform Vision

Musk has commented sparingly, letting Bier lead. His ethos of ‘maximum truth-seeking’ aligns, per insiders. Grok, X’s AI, indirectly affirmed the pause for fixes. Bier’s playbook—daily niche posts for six months to build riches—hints at incentivizing authentic voices. Moneycontrol

The meme-fueled debug unearthed VPN flaws and Starlink quirks, turning users into sentinels. As X iterates, questions linger: Will labels curb propaganda or ignite nationalist flares? Bier vows ‘many more ways’ to verify content.

For industry watchers, it’s vintage X: Flawed, fast and fiercely user-driven. Anonymity’s veil thins, forcing influencers to own their digital passports in the town square’s unfiltered glare. The Times of India