Elon Musk's social media platform X has begun rolling out a new feature called “About this account”, which displays the location of a profile, its creation date, and the frequency of username changes.
The company said the goal is to help people check whether an account is genuine, especially with more bots and AI-driven accounts appearing online.
The rollout follows months of discussions inside the company. X first disclosed the feature in October. At the time, the company's head of product Nikita Bier said the tool would initially appear only on his profile and the profiles of X employees before expanding to a wider audience.
What The Feature Shows
Users can access the tool by clicking the “Joined” date on an X profile. A new page then displays:
- The date the account was created
- The location where the account is based
- The number of username changes and the date of the most recent change
- How the user is connected to X (for instance, via Google Play or the App Store)
For example, if an account frequently comments on local Mumbai politics but the feature reveals it was created only a few days ago and lists its primary location as another country, users may recognise it as a potentially coordinated or misleading profile.
Bier said the company hopes this transparency will help users “make a more informed decision about whether someone is operating an authentic account or if they're possibly a bot or bad actor attempting to sow misinformation.”
Accuracy Complaints And Temporary Removal
Shortly after the rollout began, some users reported incorrect details appearing in their “About this account” section. The complaints appear to be one reason the feature briefly disappeared for some users.
One user 'Canadian Beaver' said their country of origin was incorrectly shown as the United States despite living in Canada. Bier responded, “Fixing this now. Looks like Starlink threw us off.”
Other complaints pointed to inaccuracies in the “join date location.” One user said their account creation location was incorrectly showing as Korea. Bier replied, “We identified the problem: it looks like you used a VPN to register your account in '22. We are adding an indicator on that row on Monday for Android and iOS and it will be live on web tomorrow.”
Mashable reported that the feature was temporarily removed from X, though it seems to be back now.
X has framed the feature as a push for transparency, though similar tools exist elsewhere. Instagram's “About this profile” section shows how long an account has existed, its base country, and its username history.
