Elon Musk has been rightfully scrutinized for his mismanagement of Twitter (now X) for years. After only months of ownership over the social media platform, he made numerous financial decisions leading to a decrease in the site’s popularity. Now, in a hilarious turn of events, the introduction of a new Twitter feature led to some drama. It turns out, according to a Georgia man, US-based political accounts aren’t what they seem.
TikToker Mentally Divine—Brian—posted a video outlining a new feature on Twitter that revealed basic info on accounts. Your global location, for instance, is listed. It turns out, according to Brian, a large percentage of accounts supporting Trump are posting from foreign countries. Now, Brian says that upwards of 80% of pro-Trump Twitter accounts are “being exposed” as bad actors, essentially. Some of these countries apparently include India, Israel, and Russia among many others.
As an example, Brian focuses on an account owned by “Mariana Times.” On her Twitter, she Tweeted that Zohran Mamdani, elected mayor of New York, should be deported and that he hasn’t “assimilated into American culture.” Meanwhile, the profile picture is of a woman with the flag of Israel in the background, but is listed as being based in South Asia.
The particularly unsettling reality is that these accounts are making rounds at an incredibly fast pace. Apparently, so much so, even President Trump himself is sharing their content. He was seen sharing a post by “TRUMP_ARMY_” celebrating deportation of El Salvador criminals. It turns out the account is based in India, even though they frequently post pro-American content.
By essentially ‘faking it’ and appearing as if they’re U.S.-based, these accounts garner support from MAGA. According to Darren Linvill (Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub), “There are accounts that are run by troll farms, that are run by nation states, and then there are accounts that are just trying to make a buck by pretending to be American.”
Darren Linvill also adds, “Organized state actors and political parties have been shown to leverage sockpuppet accounts over and over again.”
In another problematic turn of events, Brian shared the DHS’s Twitter profile had Israel listed as its location. Brian argues, “Trump and MAGA have paid foreign actors to create bot farms,” ultimately in an effort to muddy the political landscape and keep people fighting.
“I read they changed it for government accounts almost instantly. Elon did that on purpose,” one commenter claimed.
Hilariously, another pointed out the irony of the situation, “They don’t even want to do this job!!! Hahahaha they have to outsource it.” And the pay is probably horrible, too.
