Elon Musk's X platform has begun showing which countries its users are based in. The social media company now displays this location data on profile information pages. This move aims to help people verify who they are talking to online.
X head of product Nikita Bier announced the company would test this new transparency feature. He said the goal is to let users check the realness of content they see on the platform. The change started to appear for some users on November 21, 2025. It is being introduced slowly and is not yet visible on all accounts .
The new details go beyond just country information. Users can now see an "About this account" section. This area shows the date an account was created. It also shows how many times a username has been changed. It reveals the country the account is based in. And it shows which country's app store was used to download X .
Supporters of the change believe it will help uncover accounts used for foreign interference. It can also reveal accounts spreading propaganda or farming engagement unethically. If an account's bio says a user is in one place but the data shows another country, it may signal a problem. This mismatch could mean the account has another purpose .
X is giving users some control over their privacy. People can opt out of showing their country. They can choose to display their general region instead. However, X will note on a profile when a user has chosen to hide this data. For users in places where free speech can lead to penalties, X may show a region instead of a specific country to protect them .
This update is part of a larger fight against X's bot problems. Studies show a significant part of the traffic on X comes from bots. One report found 75 percent of traffic sent to advertisers during the 2024 Super Bowl seemed to come from bots. Other research found bot percentages between 15 and 44 percent in different online discussions .
X recently removed 1.7 million accounts for reply spam. The new profile details are another tool to fight inauthentic behavior. Seeing an account's creation date and location history helps users spot potential bot accounts. These accounts are often made recently and operate from suspicious locations .
The platform is also working on another related feature. X plans to soon show if an account is using a VPN to hide its true location. This could expose many troll accounts that regularly discuss foreign politics. Foreign operations often use social media to spread propaganda or worsen social divisions .
Microsoft has repeatedly found large-scale influence activity from China targeting U.S. platforms. Google ended over 10,000 YouTube channels in 2025 alone. These were linked to coordinated influence runs by Chinese state actors. Hundreds more were connected to Russian operations .
X's move toward more transparency mirrors steps taken by other social media companies. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said a similar "About this profile" feature exists on his platform. He said users can see how long a profile has existed, its country base, and username change history. He noted that Instagram may provide even more context in the future .
X's new system does not rely on user-provided location data from bios. Instead, it shows the location from which the user actually posts. This makes the information harder to fake without technical tricks like VPNs .
The changes on X come after major shifts in its verification system. Under Musk, the platform moved to a paid verification model. The old "legacy verified" system was dropped. Now, any user with a phone number and a Premium subscription can get a blue checkmark. This led to criticism that verified status could be bought, not earned by trust .
A recent study from Surfshark found X is the most aggressive among social apps in collecting user location data. X gathers both coarse and precise location information for all its stated purposes. These include advertising, analytics, and personalization. This background data collection powers the new public-facing profile labels .
The test of the new profile details will first appear on some X employee profiles. The company will gather feedback before a wider release. There is no public date yet for a full global rollout to all users .