A new feature meant to boost transparency on Elon Musk’s platform relies on data that researchers say can be inaccurate or easily spoofed.
Advocates for transparency on social media cheered this weekend when X, the app owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, rolled out a new feature that disclosed what the company said were the country locations of accounts.
The feature appeared to unmask a number of accounts that were portraying themselves as belonging to Americans but in reality were based in countries such as India, Thailand and Bangladesh.
But by Monday, the effectiveness and accuracy of the feature were already in question, as security experts, social media researchers and two former X employees said the location information could be inaccurate or spoofed using widely available technology, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), to hide their locations.
Right. It is a bad mechanism if used for that purpose.
The correct way to do what they actually want is to have a global, anonymous nationality verification. There are all kinds of ways to do this that aren’t dystopian. Then, if desired, there can be attestation to nationality without disclosure of personal information.
That would allow us to appropriately measure the national origins of content, and I could see the use of that.
Instead, people are supporting a deeply flawed mechanism as “good enough,” as they always do. It is lazy, sloppy, and dangerous.
To that end, if it continues to go that way, there are countless ways to undermine it. That’s also what makes it so stupid. Dishonest actors will easily circumvent it, and honest actors will once again be left suffering.