Elon Musk’s social media platform X plans to test new transparency features designed to help users distinguish between real accounts and automated bots. The update will display additional details on user profiles, including when an account was created, its location, the number of username changes, and how the account engages with X’s services.
The announcement came from Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, who said the company would begin experimenting with the feature next week on select employee profiles before a broader rollout. “We’re testing ways to help users better understand who they’re interacting with on X,” Bier said. He added that users will be able to opt out of displaying the new information, though such privacy settings “will likely be highlighted” on their profiles.
The new transparency tools are intended to give users more context about the authenticity of the accounts they encounter. For instance, a discrepancy between a user’s claimed location and the region shown on their profile could raise questions about legitimacy. Bier noted that in areas where revealing location information could pose safety risks, X may replace region data with a broader country designation.
The move follows similar efforts by other social media platforms. Instagram, for instance, allows users to access an “About this profile” section showing when a profile was created and its country of origin. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company may expand such features, adding that users can “decide how much you want to trust or not trust” an account based on this information.
X’s decision comes shortly after the platform removed 1.7 million bot accounts engaged in reply spam. The feature, if widely adopted, could strengthen X’s efforts to improve transparency and user confidence amid growing concerns about the authenticity of online interactions in the era of AI-generated content.
Source: TechCrunch