X feature reveals locations of some users. It could backfire.

Advocates for transparency cheered when X, the app owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, rolled out a new feature that disclosed the country locations of users.

Advocates for transparency on social media cheered this weekend when X, the app owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, rolled out a new feature that disclosed what the company said were the country locations of accounts.

The feature appeared to unmask a number of accounts that were portraying themselves as belonging to Americans but in reality were based in countries such as India, Thailand and Bangladesh.

But by Monday, the effectiveness and accuracy of the feature were already in question, as security experts, social media researchers and two former X employees said the location information could be inaccurate or spoofed using widely available technology, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), to hide their locations.

The former employees said the idea had been pitched since at least 2018, but had been repeatedly shot down.

“Now that this feature exists, I think it’s absolutely going to be exploited, and people will learn to dodge it very quickly,” said Darren Linvill, a professor and a co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.