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