Elon Musk’s X rolls out characteristic that reveals customers’ nation of origin – then immediately removes it

In case you had been perusing Elon Musk’s X late Friday night time, you may need seen a model new, extremely anticipated characteristic roll out.

X guests had been in a position to go to any customers’ profile web page, click on on their be a part of date to view a brand new “About this account” web page which revealed precisely which nation an account was primarily based. This info differed from the standard “Location” element on an X profile web page, because it confirmed precisely the place an account was posting from primarily based on their IP deal with, not what the consumer enter themselves.

The nation of origin disclosure was broadly lauded amongst X’s consumer base. Then, immediately, with out discover, the nation of origin was faraway from the “About this account” web page simply hours after it made its late-night debut.

Mashable reported final month that the characteristic was on the best way. X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, initially teased the characteristic, rolling it out on his personal account as a demo of how it might work earlier than it was seen on another X customers’ accounts.

It is unclear precisely why X shortly eliminated the characteristic shortly after rolling it out to the general public. Nevertheless, Bier replied to some X customers who had been reporting that their “About this account” was exhibiting inaccurate info, which will be the motive why the characteristic was taken down.

One X consumer named “Canadian Beaver” shared that their nation of origin was showing as the USA regardless of residing in Canada.

“Fixing this now,” Bier replied. “Appears to be like like Starlink threw us off.”

Together with the present nation of origin, the “About this web page” additionally displayed the place a consumer resided when first creating the account. One X consumer reported that their be a part of date location was inaccurately displayed as Korea.

“We recognized the issue: it appears to be like such as you used a VPN to register your account in ’22,” Bier stated to that consumer. “We’re including a indicator on that row on Monday for Android and iOS—and it is going to be reside on net tomorrow.”

Primarily based on Bier’s responses, it appears X might have eliminated the characteristic to repair location inaccuracies attributable to VPNs, and the intention is to re-roll out the characteristic within the coming days.

X customers principally welcomed the nation of origin characteristic, as many really feel it might discourage international actors from spreading misinformation and propaganda associated to political discussions on the platform. Fb has an analogous characteristic for Fb Pages, the place customers can view the nation of origin for the directors of the web page, though Fb doesn’t reveal the profiles behind the pages.

We’ll quickly discover out if Musk’s social media platform reinstates the characteristic.