Musk Exposes an Army of Foreign Propagandists on X, Some Based in Kenya

In a bold move aimed at boosting transparency on his social media platform, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) rolled out a new “About This Account” feature on Monday, revealing the country of origin for user profiles and unmasking a web of foreign-operated accounts posing as local voices in global conversations.

This update, which also displays username change history and app download details, has sparked immediate chaos, exposing troll networks influencing politics from the U.S. to Kenya.

The feature went live early Monday, allowing users worldwide to peek behind the curtain of influential accounts.

In the U.S., it quickly revealed that many prominent “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) profiles—loud proponents of conservative politics—aren’t American at all.

For instance, the account MAGANationX, boasting nearly 400,000 followers and relentless posts about “saving America,” was shown to originate from Eastern Europe.

Similarly, IvankaNews, a million-follower page dedicated to Ivanka Trump, traces its roots to Nigeria. 7 Pro-Kremlin channels like Vladimir Putin News appear to operate from South Asia, while supposed Gaza “eyewitnesses” post from Indonesia, Pakistan, Poland, or Saudi Arabia.

Closer to home in Kenya, the revelations hit even harder, highlighting the country’s unexpected role in global online influence.

Users discovered that The Anfield Talk—a popular Liverpool FC fan page with over 483,000 followers, long presenting itself as UK-based with Merseyside affiliations—was actually created and run from Kenya.

Another account claiming Native American heritage also originated in Kenya.

These findings amused local fans, underscoring Kenyans’ outsized impact on international digital spaces, but they also raised alarms about coordinated propaganda.

The rollout comes amid growing concerns over state-backed disinformation.

A recent Amnesty International report accused the Kenyan government of orchestrating online campaigns to silence Gen Z protesters during demonstrations from June 2024 to July 2025.

These efforts allegedly involved “technology-facilitated violence” on platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram, flooding feeds with trolls, smears, threats, and misinformation targeting young activists.

However, the feature’s transparency push was short-lived.

By late Monday, X appeared to pause or remove the country-of-origin labels for many users, sparking speculation about privacy backlash or unintended exposures.

X officials claimed the data could be skewed by VPN usage, but critics argue the brief glimpse revealed too much about global troll armies, including those in Eastern Europe, Nigeria, India, and Russia.

This isn’t X’s first foray into profile labeling; the platform recently introduced tags for parody accounts to combat misinformation.

Yet, the rapid reversal on country origins highlights the tension between Musk’s free-speech ethos and user privacy.

As one viral post noted, the feature effectively shared “assassination coordinates” for non-government accounts, echoing Musk’s own past criticisms of location data.

While the full impact remains unclear, this episode underscores how social media giants like X can reshape political discourse overnight.

For Kenya, it spotlights both the ingenuity of local digital operators and the risks of foreign meddling in domestic affairs. As users continue to dig, expect more unmaskings—and perhaps more features quietly rolled back.

A screenshot of X’s ‘About This Account’ feature displaying a user’s country of origin.