STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One benefit of listening to public media is you know the source. The public station is in your community, run by people in your community. When you get news on social media, you may not know who in the world sent it or where in the world they are. Now a feature on X shows where users' accounts are located. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports it revealed accounts that do not appear to be where they claim to be.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: An account called American with a bald eagle as its profile pic was based in Pakistan. Another account called IvankaTrumpNews (ph) with over a million followers was out in Nigeria. Both accounts are now suspended for violating X's rules.
RENEE DIRESTA: These folks who were pretending to be American culture warriors actually weren't living in the United States at all.
BRUMFIEL: Renee DiResta researches social media at Georgetown University. After X's new location feature rolled out, many accounts that got flagged by other users were influencers on the U.S. political right. But DiResta says mystery accounts appear to be weighing in on other hot-button issues.
DIRESTA: There have been some accounts talking about gay rights in Japan that turned out to not be located in Japan, but rather in Brazil.
BRUMFIEL: Sometimes people might have legitimate reasons for hiding their location like political persecution. But DiResta says she thinks, in most cases, this is probably about making money. People are exploiting controversy online for clicks, followers and ultimately cash. She calls it conflict entrepreneurship.
DIRESTA: Anytime you have a situation where there is monetizable conflict, you're starting to see these conflict entrepreneurs in the space. And that's what this feature is really illustrating.
BRUMFIEL: Darren Linvill co-directs the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University and spends a lot of time tracking things like Russian-backed influence campaigns. He broadly agrees with DiResta. Many of the accounts look like they're farming rage for cash.
DARREN LINVILL: In most of these cases, it's most likely just influencers who are trying to make a buck.
BRUMFIEL: But Linvill says some accounts do look like they might be run by foreign governments. For example, some U.K. accounts calling for Scottish independence? He's long suspected they were set up by Iranian intelligence.
LINVILL: And lo and behold, you look at the account information now, and they signed up for X on an Iranian service.
BRUMFIEL: Linvill applauds X for adding a little more transparency to who's commenting on the platform, and he says researchers will likely learn more in the days and weeks to come.
Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF HALFSLEEP'S "THE END") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
