X is experimenting with displaying more information about profiles to combat fake engagement

X has long been a hotbed of fake accounts, bots, and other fraudulent behavior. Many of these dynamics have been exacerbated by the rise of paid verification, which boosts the visibility of anyone who pays for a subscription. Now, the company is conducting a small experiment that could help users better identify suspicious accounts.

The service has begun testing a new “About this Account” feature that will provide details about when an account joined the platform, where the person running it is located, how many times the username has been changed and how the account is connected to X. This feature is very similar to Facebook’s “Page Transparency” information, which provides similar details about when a particular Page was created and where the people running it are located.

“When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity,” X head of product Nikita Beer said in job About change. “This is critical to learning about important issues happening in the world.”

If this type of feature is fully rolled out, it could help people on X understand a lot of common scams and other deceptive behavior on the platform. For example, scammers often change the name of a recently hacked account to trick the account’s current followers. Understanding the location of an account can help users root out people who are lying about their identity.

However, it appears that it may be some time before this feature is implemented in a way that can be widely useful. Pierre said that