X rolls out location tool, unmasks fake Gaza influencer network

[Twiglets1]

Article in Ynet today about the new feature on X introduced in recent days that publicly displays key background information about user accounts.

The tool adds a small button on profile pages that reveals the country or region where an account is based, how many times the user has changed their handle, when the account was created and where the app was originally installed, making previously hidden information accessible to all users.

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, signaled in October that the company planned to roll out the feature. At the time, it appeared to be a routine anti-spam update. Once the feature went live and users began clicking the “About this account” button, however, the scope of the fraud became clear.

Users discovered a network of accounts posing as Palestinians in Gaza who claimed to be reporting under bombardment and sharing emotional personal stories. Many were not based in Gaza at all. Some accounts shut down almost immediately after their listed locations were exposed.

One account that described its owner as a witness in Rafah “living under airstrikes” was shown to be posting from Afghanistan. A supposed nurse in Khan Younis turned out to be based in Pakistan. A man claiming to be a father of six in a displacement camp was based in Bangladesh. A “poet from Deir al-Balah writing by candlelight” was located in Russia.

The revelations went far beyond a few isolated cases. Entire bot farms appeared to be operating for months. Users posing as “North Gaza survivors” were actually in Pakistan. Self-described “Rafah residents” were in Indonesia. Accounts claiming to be members of Hamas’s Nukhba unit uploaded videos from Malaysia. Even fake profiles presenting themselves as IDF soldiers — “officers,” “snipers” and “reservists” supposedly operating in Gaza — were traced to London.

www.ynetnews.com/tech-and-digital/article/rygk6llwzg

From the same source:

A push for transparency

The new feature allows users to choose whether to show their country or a more general region, similar to an option long available on Instagram. On X, however, the information is more prominent and cannot be hidden once enabled.

According to foreign media reports, code analysts have found evidence that X is preparing another tool that would alert users when an account attempts to disguise its true location with a VPN. If implemented, it could make remaining forms of manipulation on the platform far more difficult.

Interesting, does this geolocation of the account creation see through VPNs? If so how does it do it?

oops I see my question is answered already
“X is preparing another tool that would alert users when an account attempts to disguise its true location with a VPN.”

So. no. Whatever location the profile shows just shows the VPN location chosen, which isn’t necessarily where the person physically is located.

Posters on X didn't think they needed to hide their locations previously, as this location tool didn't exist until a few days ago.

Now the feature exists and people are becoming aware of it, no doubt more will start using VPNs to hide their actual location.

Which is why it's good (if true) that X is preparing another tool that will alert users when an account attempts to disguise its true location with a VPN.

Technology always seems to be one step behind scammers, unfortunately.

The new feature allows users to choose whether to show their country or a more general region, similar to an option long available on Instagram. On X, however, the information is more prominent and cannot be hidden once enabled.

Does it mean their country OR a general region, ie it must show one or the other - helpful

or

does it mean nothing OR (country or general region), in which case accounts could choose to show nothing?

lol, many posters on X use VPNs for their own privacy. It’s not a new thing. The fact it is so common is why they are developing this tool.

VPNs are not a new thing.

What is new is there being a reason to use VPNs on X now they have this new feature.

People that actually were posting from Gaza would have had no reason to set their VPN as Russia (looking at you, poet from Deir al-Balah writing by candlelight).

This first came to my attention when it was realised that people were posting about the freezing conditions in Gaza ... on days when it was hot and sunny.

A lot of people on the internet aren't who they say they are. Shocker.

Bears shit in the woods.

If I was in Gaza and reporting on life I'd be pretty cagey about sharing my location data, given the number of journalists killed in Israeli strikes.

Also, whether these accounts are fake doesn't change that much does it? I don't think even official Israeli inflrmation is claiming that life there is all sunny and happy and no-one is being killed.

I suppose it's a problem if people are sending money to help a family in Gaza and the recipient is actually a man not affected by the war & based in Pakistan or London.

Yeah that is a problem- in fact it is fraud. I hadn't really thought about that angle.

Probably a good idea to stick to known charities rather than giving to random people on the internet though, regardless of cause. A bit like always giving to homeless charities rather than beggars on the street.

I don't think Russia/Maga/Reform are too keen on this new development either.

Yes I think that is a safer thing to do.

SHOCKER! Not everyone on the Internet is who they say they are!*

*Please note that this is only noteworthy in case of some posters, depending on their opinions. Definitely not noteworthy in case of pro-Israel thirst traps.

On a more serious sidenote: the feature is semi-reliable at best. My own account shows up as being from Spain. I haven't been to Spain since 2022 and have never lived there. I am using various eSIMs due to frequent travel, which may or may not be related, but in either case: the information is dead wrong (though it does show my current location accurately).

Not surprised at all. So many fake stories coming out that dont stand up to scrutiny.

It is very sad, if true, that people are capitalising on pretending to be living in Gaza. There are always scammers who will exploit a crisis.

These scammers should not detract from
the very real people living there in the rubble with no shelter or food due to the Israel blocking entry of vital supplies, people with missing limbs, dead relatives - over 69,000 dead. It is awful that these scammers are likely soliciting donations from people who think they are donating to the people of Gaza.

This isn't just about individual scammers. This is about 'Palestinian journalists' reporting from inside Gaza when their accounts are based on a different continent or right-wing 'patriotic' anti-Israel American influencers actually being from Muslim-majority countries. It wouldn't be so bad had there not been so much cross-contamination with the established media. The BBC has relied on the eye-witness account of at least one journalist who whereabouts are rather nebulous. In recent months there have been many discussions about growing anti-Israel feelings on the American right but exactly how well-founded were those fears and who is really stoking those sentiments? The grifters and scammers are bad enough but I'm far more concerned about the organised, funded mass-propaganda campaigns and the lack of will from the political classes and the media to interrogate where they are getting their information from.

Nation's shock that Twitter isn't a reputable news source ...

You are minimising the fact that people are being misled by those pretending to be posting in Gaza for propaganda or fake income generating reasons.

As it says in the article. “Some accounts shut down almost immediately after their listed locations were exposed”. These accounts were pretending to be from people based in Gaza who were not based in Gaza.

X may not be a particularly reputable source of news at the best of times. But this is something for people to be aware of not shrugged off.

X is not a source of news. Its a platform for sources of news. The BBC doesnt become more or less reputable in X than on its own website. You should assess news you find on X the same way you do anywhere else you find it. Its your bias that's the problem if you trust disreputable accounts just because they say what you want to hear. But obviously fake accoubts are a problem because propaganda feeds into the narrative and gets further and further from the source so you can't evaluate it.

The only journalist they give an example of not being based in Gaza was Motasem A Dalloul - I clicked on his profile, from the article, and got a geotag on X of Gaza. Perhaps it was initially a glitch showing the wrong location when they wrote the article, perhaps he has given his logins to someone abroad to keep an eye on his account when his access is cut, perhaps the people writing the article made it up - who knows - his account is currently listed as being from Gaza. If I was in a war zone where electricity is often an issue and where journalists are routinely targeted, I would likely give my logins to someone outside the region to keep an eye on my account when access is cut off which could very well result in a temporary geotag from a different location.

Someone logging in from outside the region isn’t somehow proof that the hardship that people are enduring is a lie. There are plenty of accounts based in Gaza showing video footage of dead relatives (69,000+ confirmed dead), bombed houses (92%+ destroyed), kids missing limbs, flooded tents and currently people in the rain standing in rubble with no place to go for shelter as the people who bombed their homes are restricting tents to the region! Even IDF soldiers have gone on record to say that civilians are being targeted in Gaza, houses are being destroyed on a whim, these IDF soldiers showed their own footage of the rubble and devastation in Gaza.

This location tool also exposed a LOT of vocal "all-American MAGA supporters" on X who are actually based in Russia, India, Nigeria, and other less than all-American territories.

Who said it was proof that hardship in Gaza is a lie?

I'm certainly not denying that hardship in Gaza is a lie. I don't think that is something anyone could reasonably do.

Just think this is something for people to be aware of and that because of scammers, they should make sure they are only sending money to known charities or sites they 100% trust.

Yes it did. As reported in The Guardian today:

Many of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (Maga) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed.

The new tool, called “about this account,” became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded.

As soon as the update was rolled out, users found numerous Maga and rightwing influencers who presented themselves as patriotic Americans were operating from other countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/rightwing-influencers-outside-us-x-twitter-tool

UK "X" users are probably well motivated to use a VPN to circumvent the Online Safety Act overreach.

And given how astoundingly shite "X" are at "AI", I would raise eyebrows if they told me it was cold in winter.

The issue is also being reported in The Jerusalem Post who make the point that
news accounts were not the only ones brought into question by the new feature:

Many of the accounts of private individuals claiming to be living through the “genocide” in Gaza are not in fact located there, or in Palestine. Ameer in Gaza @abu-hafed1 posts about starving in Gaza and asks for donations, but is geolocated to the UK. A well-known account – Mahmoud in Gaza – is actually in the Netherlands. An account supposedly belonging to Dima Alghrbawi has raised $34,000 through a GoFundMe fundraiser, and while the person may be authentic, it is brought into question by several indications that the account was created and based in Nigeria.

Scores of other accounts of Palestinians living in Gaza follow the same pattern. Others are located in North Africa, Nigeria, the UK, India, Poland, and Canada. Many ask for donations to support their lives in Gaza, but apparently do not reside there.

Concerns have been raised by some X users about the presence of foreign actors involving themselves in political movements, either for manipulation or monetization. The General is an anti-Israel, ethno-nationalist, far-right account, but according to the platform, it was created and is based in Turkey. It has a large reach, often obtaining millions of views per post. The Readers Notes feature (which allows users to add context under a post) now shows that it “is based in Turkey and is claiming to be in the US” under each of the account’s posts.

Some “Groyper” or “America First” accounts claiming to represent a more radical American Right have been shown to not be American at all. There are also more pro-Israel MAGA accounts that appear to be directed from abroad. One such account, American Voice, appeared to have been deleted after the location feature went live.

Anti-Israel and pro-Israel activist accounts have not been immune from the phenomenon. The popular anti-Israel and antisemitic account Khalisee was deleted after being accused of being based in Pakistan.

www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-874946