Executive Summary

X’s new geolocation tool, About This Account,* recently exposed numerous politically influential accounts as false flag operations by unidentified actors. The accounts all share verification on X, polarising ideas and images, and are interactive; some have thousands of followers. 

This is consistent with patterns of grey and black propaganda operations, but we do not see clear connections to any particular actors at this time and we cannot rule out the possibility that some of the accounts represent efforts at publishing ragebait for monetary gain. Irrespective of underlying intent, the discovery feeds growing international concern about the spread of misinformation. 

The accounts explored in this report concern popular Russian news channels based in the UAE and influential as well as politically polarising MAGA-themed accounts based in Nigeria, Eastern Europe and West Asia. 

*About This Account launched in November 2025. It reveals accounts’ launch date, the location from which they were opened and are run, the number of times the owner has changed usernames, and how the owner connected to the X platform (for example, from the Android App Store).