Social media platform X has started to roll out 'country labels' for all user accounts across the globe. This means, that once the rollout is finished, users will now be able to see where the person they are interacting with, are from. This feature has been lauded by supporters who feel that it will enable them to uncover accounts used to spread propoganda. While this feature was announced a few days ago, its rollout has just begun, and Internet has been very divided with its reactions.
While some support it, some users also feel that this feature could increase racial or abuse based on region, something that people could not do before, as a Twitter user could easily impersonate into anything and post freely.
This feature, once activated can be seen by going to any user's bio and clicking on the date it had joined Twitter. Once you click on it, it will show you where the accounti is based from and the App Store it has connected from.
Some users report that the 'Account Based in' feature is only showing up for users in their own profile, but are unable to see it on others' profiles. In any case, netizens are excited about this new change, and have created multiple memes around it.
X’s Head of Product Nikita Bier announced this feature sometime in October, only to go silent for weeks, and then suddenly announce earlier this week, that it will be available within 72 hours. Bier says that this move is aimed at helping users verify content.
“When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity. This is critical to getting a pulse on important issues happening in the world. As part of that, we’re experimenting with displaying new information on profiles, including which country an account is based, among other details. Starting next week, we will surface this on a handful of profiles of X team members to get feedback,” Bier posted.
