X plans to display more information about user profiles to help improve trust

As artificial intelligence makes it easier to create bots that behave more like humans, Elon Musk’s

According to a new post by X’s head of product, Nikita Beer, the social network will begin experimenting with displaying more information about user profiles, including details like the date the account was created, its location, the number of username changes it has undergone, and how the X service is being utilized.

The idea is that by revealing some of these details, users will be able to make a more informed decision about whether someone is running a real account or if they are likely a bot or a bad actor trying to plant misinformation.

For example, if an account’s bio claims that it is located in a US state, but its account information shows that it is located abroad, you might suspect that the account has another agenda.

Likewise, if it shows that they have downloaded App (This doesn’t mean someone couldn’t start an account elsewhere and then move to the US, but it’s a signal that could be combined with others — like multiple username changes, perhaps — that could raise red flags.)

Bier said X will start testing the feature first on some X employee profiles next week to get feedback before rolling it out more broadly. He also noted in response to a question about user privacy that people will be able to opt out of viewing this information. However, he noted, “If the user configures… [the privacy toggles]and their profile will likely be highlighted.

He also addressed concerns about disclosing people’s locations, since there are some regions where the expression could be sanctioned, saying that X may substitute region for country in those cases.

The idea of ​​displaying more information about a social media account to help users understand the people they may be interacting with on social media is not new. In a recent interview at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference, for example, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said that users of the photo and video-sharing app today can visit someone’s profile and see a similar set of information.

“Today, if you go to my profile, you can go to ‘About this profile,’ and you can see how long I’ve had that profile, what country I’m in, how many times I’ve changed my username — a series of signals you can use to determine how much you want to trust or not trust,” he said, noting that Instagram may “do more” to provide additional context in the future.

Changes to X, if rolled out publicly, could help address trust issues to some extent, although scammers and spammers often have effective ways around exposure attempts.

This news comes on the heels of a recent bot purge on X, where the company removed 1.7 million bots involved in responding to spam.