Social media platform X has caused outrage over a new location feature that allows users to see countries or regions where accounts are based.
It is the latest of many controversies since Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter.
On Saturday, X’s head of product development Nikita Bier announced that the platform would be introducing the location feature.
“This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square,” Mr Bier said in a post. “We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see."
Developers at X confirmed that they were trying to methodically tweak a new feature designed to show potentially inauthentic user behaviour.
In theory, with a few clicks or taps, you would be able to see approximate locations from which users were posting but when the feature went live, it caused widespread anger.
The location labels seemed to confirm that several accounts known for posts praising President Donald Trump were actually based outside the US, fuelling concerns over foreign figures trying to influence American politics.
In other instances, some X account users were perplexed by their own locations. As controversy mounted, X’s development team sought to calm the waters.
“There are a few rough edges that will be resolved,” Mr Bier posted on X. He said that older accounts were facing problems with location, blaming bad data as a result.
A new feature designed to flag inauthentic behaviour on X confirmed the fears of some, but also caused confusion in other circles.
Mr Bier did not
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