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How To Read X’s Location Panel · Elon Musk Podcast

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This is the Elon Musk Podcast, your daily hit of what is really
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going on at Tesla, SpaceX, XAI, and the rest of the Musk
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universe. I'm your host Will Walden, and I
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have covered Elon Musk for more than five years, spent a year on
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the ground at SpaceX, Starbase during early Starship
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development, and before this I spent my career as a software
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developer working with billion dollar companies.
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I've also built and sold my own businesses and now I make
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content and help other people grow their companies.
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Now on this show, I used that experience to break down the
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news, filter out all the noise, and give you clear context you
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can actually use. Elon Musk's social network X
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added a About this account feature that shows an account's
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country or region, and users immediately spotted the several
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large pro Trump fan accounts post from outside of the United
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States. Now the topic is how that single
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design change exposed the true base of popular political
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profiles. I know you can use it to check
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what you see. Are there foreign actors instead
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of people near you that are trying to influence you?
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Now the payoff is clear. You will know what this tool
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shows, how reliable it is, and what early findings say about
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some of the most viral accounts on X.
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Now one striking threat is how many of these accounts claim AUS
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identity in their bio. You know who they are, the
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people with the eagle American flag and you know USAUSAUSA all
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over the place. They claimed US identity of the
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bio while the location panel points somewhere else.
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Now what does this sudden transparency change about how we
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read political content on X and who you can trust?
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Now some of the biggest fan pages for Trump family members,
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mega memes and right wing slogans trace to places like
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Nigeria, Eastern Europe and Thailand.
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And we'll talk about how the new panel works, what early
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sleuthing has uncovered, how accurate the location readout is
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and where people have already faked screenshots.
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What a sensible user checklist looks like.
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Now I'll also talk about practical steps, specific
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examples, and the limits you should assume before you share a
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political post. And we'll get right into that
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after this very short break. All right, everybody, welcome
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back. Today we're talking about XS,
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about this account pain and what it revealed about foreign based
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political profiles. The panel sits behind the sign
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up date on an account page and exposes location along with
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other basic metadata. This thing's amazing.
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Now that puts quick context one tap away from anyone evaluating
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A viral post. You just look at the profile,
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you see they're not from your country and then they don't
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matter, right? Let's start with how the feature
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works, then move to the account people found in the caveats you
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need to apply each time you look at one of these accounts before
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you get rage baited into something.
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So you access the location by tapping or clicking the sign up
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data on a profile. There's now opens in about this
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account card. The card shows a country or a
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broader region for some accounts because it places with
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restrictive speech rules. X allows users to display only a
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region such as South Asia and X's head of products that the
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feature rolled out across the platform and describe it as a
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first step toward helping users verify authenticity.
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He also claimed a very high accuracy rate, while the product
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warns VPNs and some proxies can blur the reading and even adds a
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notice when it detects that the location may be unreliable.
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Now treat the readout as a signal with limits.
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Not a complete verdict for that person though.
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Now as soon as the panel appeared, users began checking.
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Well known MAGA handles a fan account for Ivanka Trump with
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about a million followers showed Nigeria as its base.
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A cluster of other right leaning personalities landed outside US
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borders as well, including a dark mega profile tied to
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Thailand, a mega scope account in Nigeria, and a mega beacon
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account in South Asia. Another page branded around Mega
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nation X with hundreds of thousands of followers in a
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patriotic bio American flag eagle.
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Those things was identified as operating from Eastern Europe.
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The pattern was not isolated to one account or one region.
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And these trolls are all over the world now.
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There were checks from News Guard and others and they found
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multiple accounts that present as American yet register in
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Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa. And one large fan page for
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Barron Trump, for example, lists Eastern Europe non EU in its
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location panel, while its profile bio claims Mar a Lago.
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And the same reporting points out that these accounts have
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pushed provocative claims about US politics, including unfounded
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allegations about debate moderators taking bribes.
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Now that makes a patriotic branding foreign base and
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sensational content explains why the feature sparked so much
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attention. It turns a guess about origin
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into a visible, testable detail. I don't know if you've been on X
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and you've seen these kind of profiles and just wondered.
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This person's probably not in the US.
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These people probably do not even exist.
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It could be a content farm. It could be a troll farm trying
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to swing an election. Now.
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My analysis is that the most immediate value here is triage.
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If a viral post reads as if an everyday US voter wrote it, but
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the about this account card places the operator in another
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country, you should just adjust how you interpret the message.
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Just don't pay attention to it. Some of these pages they are
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trying to make money where accounts post engagement bait to
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farm clicks, followers and paid posts.
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That does not rule out state work but it does fit in
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engagement economy where outrage drives revenue and they could be
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selling products. A location panel will not tell
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you motive yet it can flag where the voice in your feed does not
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match the identity on the page. Use this mismatch to slow down
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before you share any of this stuff.
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Now accuracy is the next concern and you should build that into
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your workflow. Access product had claimed near
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perfect accuracy of about this update, but the system itself
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warns about VPNs and proxies and sometimes labels of view as
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potentially inaccurate. That means AUS user who routes
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traffic through another country can appear foreign and a foreign
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operator can try to appear domestic.
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Now, Cornell Tech's trust and safety expert said this is
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harmful, useful, but limited signal the bad actors will adapt
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to overtime. So they're just going to get
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VPNs and that is the right frame help context, helpful.
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Context, never a sole criterion, now misused, cropped up fast.
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AP has documented that some users created fake screenshots
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to smear opponents claiming foreign locations where the real
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cards did not show them. The speed of that tactic proves
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why you should verify on the live profile instead of trusting
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a screenshot floating around a reply thread.
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Screens can be cropped editor, Just Photoshop or Canva.
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I mean, how easy is that? Or they could be pulled from
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older versions If a claim rests on an image.
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Click through and check the About This Account panel page
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for yourself. Now, I've been digging through
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the analytics of this show right here, and I've noticed that 37%
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of you are following this channel.
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For you, I'm forever grateful to the other 63% who haven't hit
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the follow or subscribe button. I've been an independent
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journalist covering Elon Musk, spaceflight and tech for the
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last six years, and I'll continue for the next 10 years.
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And all I ask for you is one second of your time to hit the
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follow or subscribe button on the platform you're watching or
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listening on right now. I'm extremely grateful for you
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and I'm blessed to have you in this community.
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So thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Now, here's a simple checklist you can use when you evaluate a
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political post on X. First, tap the sign update on
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the author's profile and open the About this account card.
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Note the country or region. Second, scan the rest of the
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card for context that it contains, including when the
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account joined, any username change history, and how the app
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was downloaded. Third, look for a disclaimer
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that the location may be inaccurate or considered whether
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AVPN could explain a mismatch. 4th, read the bio and pin posts
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and ask whether the identity claims align with what the panel
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shows. 5 quick steps Add a layer of discipline to your social
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media without turning you into like a crazy forensic lab.
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Here. And some users have found a
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spread of mega pages with foreign bases from Eastern
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Europe to Nigeria to Thailand and even collected follower
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cuts. For context, AP highlighted a
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Baron Trump fan account, the show's non-us region, while
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claiming A prominent Florida locale in the profile text.
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Those two threads together show both the scale and texture of
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the issue. Multiple accounts, different
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regions, and consistent patriotic branding that'll wave
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and flag gift maybe. And the accounts do not all push
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the same lines, but many churn out in motives and topics for US
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politics. And that's designed to harvest
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engagement and rage. And you should treat it that
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way. Don't treat everything you see
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on X or any social media with any sort of prominence because
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they're not everyone's in it for themselves.
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And whether that's money and you have to look, look at it all.
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Look at the whole picture. Don't just look at what they
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say. Look at the whole picture.
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Look at why they're saying it, who they are, where they're
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from, the context of what they're saying.
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If they say something like, you know, America is going down the
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tubes due to Democratic something rather look at the
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profile, see where they're from and see if they even matter.
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Because if they're not American, then why do they care?
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You know, like what's the don't even worry about them because
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they don't matter. You know, not that they don't
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matter as a person, but they don't matter to American
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politics. So the motivation some operators
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could be state actors. Many likely chase income by
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posting commentary, memes and videos that spark replies and
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repost and rage bait you. It's a business model, not an
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ideology. And the location feature helps
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you spot when a pages claimed identity looks like stagecraft.
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My guidance here is very simple. Separate the content from the
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costume, then just the claim on the evidence, not on flags and
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avatars or references to heartland towns.
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If the page collects tips, runs paid subscriptions, or sells
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merch, assume engagement sits near the top of its goals.
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They need to see some eyes on this thing so they can make
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money from their merch sales. They want to sell that Donald
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Trump with his bulging muscles standing on top of a a tank
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waving the American flag with an eagle on his shoulder.
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They want to sell that T-shirt and they want you to buy it.
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And that's why they do this. And I'm saying this because I
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think it's hilarious that those shirts exist because that's
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silly. But if they can make $10 in
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their country from selling this shirt, it could be a lot of
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money for them. If they could sell a hundred of
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those shirts, they could be doing really well.
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So just think about that before you click through these
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profiles, before you even take them seriously and also call
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them out if you see them doing this kind of stuff because it's
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just rage bait and they're trying to make money, which I,
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I, I love hustlers. I love it when people hustle and
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make money. That's one of the things that
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I'm into. I love business.
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I've hustled, I've made money, I've built companies, I've sold
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companies, I've been equi hired, I've had numerous acquisitions
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over the years and I love the hustle.
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So I get it. You want to make the best money
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for your family, right? You want to make as much money
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as you can, but you're also lying and you're being a a rat.
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So we don't want rats and our social media, right?
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So call them out. Make sure you call them out.
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But some users cheered the new found visibility instead of
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confirmed what they suspected after certain accounts.
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And others questioned whether exposing location crosses a
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privacy line and argued that where someone posed from should
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not matter. If the facts hold up.
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I agree with that. If they're facts, yes.
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If it's rage bait, no. So there's debate in the
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replies, including concerns about privacy, and there's also
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celebration right now from some liberal influencers who said the
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panel vindicated long standing warnings that they had.
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You don't. You don't have to pick a side
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though to use this tool. You only need to use it
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consistently. Use it for both sides.
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Use it for all sides. But don't just use it for people
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that you think are wrong. Think about the people that you
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think are right and why are they doing what they're doing?
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Always think about the why are they doing this?
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Because they believe in this and they want this to be the
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outcome, whatever that is, and they think it's going to be a
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positive. Or are they just doing to sell
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merch? Most people that do things to
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sell money or to to make money and sell merch or sell like a
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course or something like that. Now one more contextual note
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matters for really heavy users. If you're an ex user, that's
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just wild on there. These findings are in a longer
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history of bots and false claims on Twitter before and after it
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became X, and mentions that the platform's Grok chatbot has made
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errors as well. That background explains why a
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small change like a location panel creates waves.
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People are hungry for any signal that helps them sort the real
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from the performative. The location field will not cure
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misinformation and it just won't ever.
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It does, however, add a small speed bump that forces a second
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look. Now it would be great if it were
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on the post page, right underneath the headline or
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underneath the person's profile. You know, put a little flag
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there, a little flag icon. That would be great.
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That would be more beneficial than some that having to dig
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through somebody's profile and it would shut down these
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accounts immediately. Because if you're an American
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citizen and you're a flag waving, gun toting American,
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I'll tell you what. You look at a you look at a
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profile that posts about Nancy Pelosi or something like that
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and they have a flag from say China or Japan or someplace in
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Russia. You know, who knows where the
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flag could be from, but there's a possibility.
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Or even Africa, who knows? But you would not trust them
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Eastern Europe, you're like, why do you even care?
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Like, what are you doing? Like you're not American
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citizen. So like not stay out of our
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politics, but because you have the freedom to speak about
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whatever you want to in this country.
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But you see that flag and you're like, oh, you're from Nigeria.
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Probably, you know, probably don't have our best interest at
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heart. So in summary this about this
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account card behind the sign update.
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This shows that accounts country or region and other basic
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details is important. Early checks found several large
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mega branded profiles posting from outside the US, including
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examples tied to Eastern Europe, Nigeria, Thailand and the Barron
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Trump fan page which I mentioned earlier was from Eastern Europe,
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non EU despite being from quote Mar a Lago, which is a total lie
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in the bio. And the tool is useful but not
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definitive because there's VPNs of course and proxies.
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Proxies can cloud the reading and screenshots can be faked of
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course. So treat the panel as a source
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of context in a wider verification routine for now.
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Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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I really do appreciate your support.
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If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
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It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
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And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
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