Tampa International Airport said on social media Thursday that it wanted to ban people from wearing pajamas at the Florida facility. No, it wasn’t being serious.A post on the airport’s official X account said that after successfully going “Crocs-free,” Tampa International had “seen enough” of pajamas.“The madness stops today. The movement starts now,” reads the post, which had been viewed 5.7 million times by mid-afternoon Eastern time and generated a debate about airport attire in the comments.Beau Zimmer, an airport spokesperson, told The Associated Press the post was part of the airport’s longstanding social media persona — a tongue-in-cheek voice it has cultivated since its early days on Twitter, before the platform rebranded as X. The account has attracted a loyal global following, he said.“Our regular social media followers just eat this stuff up,” Zimmer said. “But obviously this is all in fun, and we encourage our travelers to be comfortable.”U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reacted to the post with a GIF of actor John Krasinski from the TV show “The Office” looking into the camera and saying, “Yes!”Duffy has been encouraging passengers to dress more formally while flying, part of a civility campaign he launched last November — called “the Golden Age of Travel Starts with You.” The Transportation Department said the campaign was “intended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel.”The airport released a statement Thursday clarifying its post was intended as a joke.“Today’s post about ‘banning’ pajamas was another playful nod to day-of-travel fashion debates,” it said. “We encourage our passengers to travel comfortably and appreciate our loyal followers who enjoy the online humor.”Zimmer said the airport’s online personality has been around for at least a decade. In the earlier days of what was then Twitter, a young intern started posting light-hearted jokes, like poking fun at rival sports teams and fans, “and it really took off.”Earlier this month, the day after the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat the Boston Bruins 6-5 in an NHL Stadium Series game in Tampa, the airport shared on X: “Oh, and safe flight home to all the Bruins fans today :)”Last month, alluding to an ongoing joke about passengers mixing up the airport’s code of TPA with TIA, an airport in Albania, the Tampa airport shared a New Year’s resolution “to stress out less.”“Unfortunately,” the post continued, “some of y’all’s resolutions is to continue calling us TIA so we will not be meeting our goal.”One X user responded that Tampa airport should just change its code to “GOAT so people don’t get confused,” referring to the acronym for “greatest of all time.”
Tampa International Airport said on social media Thursday that it wanted to ban people from wearing pajamas at the Florida facility. No, it wasn’t being serious.
A post on the airport’s official X account said that after successfully going “Crocs-free,” Tampa International had “seen enough” of pajamas.
“The madness stops today. The movement starts now,” reads the post, which had been viewed 5.7 million times by mid-afternoon Eastern time and generated a debate about airport attire in the comments.
Beau Zimmer, an airport spokesperson, told The Associated Press the post was part of the airport’s longstanding social media persona — a tongue-in-cheek voice it has cultivated since its early days on Twitter, before the platform rebranded as X. The account has attracted a loyal global following, he said.
“Our regular social media followers just eat this stuff up,” Zimmer said. “But obviously this is all in fun, and we encourage our travelers to be comfortable.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reacted to the post with a GIF of actor John Krasinski from the TV show “The Office” looking into the camera and saying, “Yes!”
Duffy has been encouraging passengers to dress more formally while flying, part of a civility campaign he launched last November — called “the Golden Age of Travel Starts with You.” The Transportation Department said the campaign was “intended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel.”
The airport released a statement Thursday clarifying its post was intended as a joke.
“Today’s post about ‘banning’ pajamas was another playful nod to day-of-travel fashion debates,” it said. “We encourage our passengers to travel comfortably and appreciate our loyal followers who enjoy the online humor.”
Zimmer said the airport’s online personality has been around for at least a decade. In the earlier days of what was then Twitter, a young intern started posting light-hearted jokes, like poking fun at rival sports teams and fans, “and it really took off.”
Earlier this month, the day after the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat the Boston Bruins 6-5 in an NHL Stadium Series game in Tampa, the airport shared on X: “Oh, and safe flight home to all the Bruins fans today :)”
Last month, alluding to an ongoing joke about passengers mixing up the airport’s code of TPA with TIA, an airport in Albania, the Tampa airport shared a New Year’s resolution “to stress out less.”
“Unfortunately,” the post continued, “some of y’all’s resolutions is to continue calling us TIA so we will not be meeting our goal.”
One X user responded that Tampa airport should just change its code to “GOAT so people don’t get confused,” referring to the acronym for “greatest of all time.”
After buying Twitter, Elon Musk rebuilt it to his own specifications and preferences. This resulted in an environment we may gently call friendlier to the discussion and promotion of right-wing politics. The goal motivated his purchase and subsequent management and product decisions, and people who still use the platform will agree, in a narrow sense, that its character has changed. From the left: Elon Musk turned Twitter into 4chan for government officials and tech workers. From the right: Elon Musk killed Twitter, created X, and saved civilization.
This obvious and very public transformation has remained a subject of dispute for a few reasons. For one, it has been a gradual process, a slow accumulation of user migrations, changes to the platform’s policies and features, and the evolution of new dominant communities alongside older declining ones. This makes its progress hard to track. For another, as an environment for intra-elite communication, signaling, and coordination, it has been pretty resilient — at the very least, a lot of powerful people still produce newsworthy material there — meaning a lot of people who are unsympathetic or uninterested in its new direction have nonetheless found reasons to stick around. Everyone with exposure to X knows it has changed, but it’s harder to say how much and with what results.
At The Argument, Lakshya Jain brought some data to the discussion, conducting a large national survey segmented by respondents’ preferred online news sources. The results were pretty stark:
As an example, even though ICE’s net favorability rating is at -26 percentage points with all voters, it’s almost break-even with people who get their news from Twitter. Compare that to other social media platforms like Reddit and TikTok, where over 70% of voters viewed the agency unfavorably.
In the survey, conducted in January, X users were the only group in which a majority, just barely over 50 percent, expressed “strong” or “somewhat” approval of Donald Trump. His approval was significantly lower among consumers of news from “podcasts and YouTube,” local television, and even Facebook. Among people reading “newspapers or news websites,” browsing Reddit, watching broadcast television or scrolling TikTok or Instagram to keep up with current events, the numbers were, as Jain described them, “catastrophic.” He noted, “If you’re largely getting your news from Twitter, you might not even know that Trump is unpopular, because you wouldn’t even see a lot of the backlash.”
Last week, in a study published in Nature, a group of researchers attempted to answer a sensible follow-up question: So what? People organize around news sources that flatter their beliefs, and in a fragmented news environment, you would expect different attitudes to be associated with venues that have developed a clear partisan identity. Well, it turns out that the engine of Musk’s X — its algorithmic “For You” page — is an ideological ratchet:
In addition to promoting entertainment, X’s feed algorithm tends to push more conservative content to users’ feeds. Seven weeks of exposure to such content in 2023 shifted users’ political opinions in a more conservative direction, particularly with regard to policy priorities, perceptions of the criminal investigations into Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. The effect is asymmetric: switching the algorithm on influenced political views, but switching it off did not reverse users’ perspectives on policy priorities or current political issues.
The effect was surprisingly pronounced considering the comparatively less insane conditions on the platform, and across politics in general, in 2023. In the space of a couple of months, users consuming X’s algorithmic feeds were both “4.7 percentage points more likely to prioritize policy issues considered important by Republicans” and“5.2 percentage points less likely to reduce their X usage.” Taken together, these analyses offer a bit of data to support the notion that X has become a place that both attracts more conservatives and pushes them further to the right, resulting in an X-obsessed administration that often uses the bizarre language of Zoomer fascists when posting online.
They also support the argument that increasingly algorithmic platforms — on which feeds centered around user-to-user connections have been either crowded out or replaced by feeds that serve posts based on prediction and user feedback — are a force for ideological persuasion. This is intuitive if you imagine algorithmic recommendations as automated editorial processes or perhaps like targeted ad networks. They’re going to end up promoting something or being manipulated to that end. Fears of algorithmic persuasion are widely held and have been consequential. After the 2016 election, Mark Zuckerberg was forced to confront the question, posed by many in the media, of whether Facebook might have swayed the outcome. More recently, lawmakers’ fear that TikTok’s algorithm was promoting Chinese propaganda, or vilifying Israel, helped prompt a legal ban and forced sale.
In the past, though, the concern about algorithmic persuasion — What is Facebook doing to the nation’s elderly voters? Is TikTok radicalizing the kids against capitalism? — has often been an eliteobsession, in which people who think of themselves as unusually informed and savvy worry about the manipulation of the masses by machines dumber than they are but smarter than everyone else. This was a particularly popular theory on Twitter itself, which, more than any other platform, was built to feel like a simulation of the public discourse and attracted people who felt entitled to be a part of it. The Muskification of Twitter into X — the MAGA platform of choice, where Musk’s tweets and the platform’s recommendations are unavoidable and the house chatbot is an outspoken rightist — may also be influencing the elites who still use it. Could it be happening to you, too? Are you … sure?
X, the social media giant formerly known as Twitter, has quietly snuck in a major new change to its Paid Partnerships policy. The Elon Musk-owned platform just excluded gambling from its list of industries permitted to promote their product via organic collaborations, causing turmoil among operators.
A Sudden Change in Policy
Under the new changes to X’s paid advertising policy, gambling companies will no longer be allowed to participate in organic commercial deals, sending shockwaves across the gaming industry. This means that gambling operators will no longer be able to promote their products via arrangements with third-parties, such as brand ambassadors and affiliates, or via incentives, such as gifts and discounts.
People familiar with the matter understood that betting brands would either need to shift into formal advertising routes that meet the social media platform’s standards or leave. Under X’s rules, violations could lead to content removal and other restrictions.
The updated policy treats gambling-like products, such as sports betting and sweepstakes, as products in the same category as gambling. As a result, all companies within this sector will have to rethink how they approach marketing on X.
Some Say the Regulation of Gaming Ads Is Insufficient
The changes to X’s Paid Partnerships policy come a week after the publication of a study from the University of Sheffield, which suggested that existing regulations on gambling advertising may be inadequate. The report cited new findings, which suggest that TV ads substantially affected betting behavior during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
With the new World Cup steadily approaching, researchers encouraged regulators to rethink their approach to regulation.
At the same time, the British Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) published the results of a new study into the country’s gambling sector, asserting that the UK’s gambling marketing is on the decline due to regulatory difficulties.
X, the former Twitter, has had a significant outage in the U.S. and UK. this morning.
Thousands of users were unable to sign onto the Elon Musk site this morning as X wouldn’t load in both its app and website forms.
According to the monitoring website Downdetector, reports of outages began to accrue at 8:14 a.m. ET today, with the number spiking considerably by 8:29 a.m. when 39.561 reports were filed with the site. The number dropped to 31,918 by 8:59 a.m. The figure at 9:09 a.m. was 28,673.
About 53% of the user submissions indicated the problems were with the app, with 21% citing timeline issues and the remainder reporting website accessibility issues.
Some media reports indicate that X outages have been reported in India as well.
Scrolling used to be relaxing. Now it often feels chaotic. That is not a coincidence. Nearly everything you see on social media is controlled by algorithms that track what you like, watch, click and ignore. Over time, those signals get muddy. One curiosity click can reshape your feed for weeks. The solution is not deleting your accounts. It is retraining the system.
Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report
Get my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter.
Your social media experience starts the moment you tap an app, and every click helps shape what shows up next.(Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
How social media algorithms decide what you see
Algorithms pay attention to behavior, not intention. They track engagement patterns and repeat what keeps you scrolling. If your feed feels off, it usually means the algorithm learned the wrong lesson. Resetting your feed helps correct that.
Note: This article is written desktop-first (PC or Mac). When a step is phone-only or significantly different on mobile, it is clearly labeled.
How to clean up your Facebook Feed
Primary device: PC or Mac. Phone differences noted.
Use Content Preferences to retrain Facebook (PC or Mac)
Facebook’s feed is built around people, pages and groups you follow, plus recommended content and ads.
Click your profile photo in the upper right
Select Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences
From here, you can:
Add people and groups to Favorites
Snooze posts temporarily
Unfollow accounts without unfriending them
Reconnect with accounts you muted before
These tools are easiest to manage on a desktop.
Filter your Feed view (PC or Mac)
To bypass the main algorithmic feed:
Click Feeds in the left navigation
Choose to view only Favorites, Friends, Groups, or Pages
This shows content chronologically within those categories.
Hide and flag posts as you scroll (PC, Mac and phone)
On any post in your Facebook feed:
Click the three-dot menu in the upper right of the post
Choose Hide post, Snooze, or Unfollow, depending on what appears
Hiding posts and snoozing or unfollowing accounts sends the same signal to the algorithm. Use these options often. Facebook responds more reliably to repeated negative feedback than occasional clicks.
For suggested posts and reels, you may also see Not interested. Selecting it further trains the feed away from similar content.
Cut down ads and sensitive topics (PC, Mac and phone)
When ads appear:
Click the X to hide them
Or use the three-dot menu to hide or report
For deeper control:
Go to Settings and Privacy > Settings
Open Account Center
Click Ad Preferences > Customize ads
Select See All next to Ad Topics
Click View and manage topics
Click the topic name
Choose See less
Repeat this for every topic you want to limit.
To block specific words in comments:
Click your profile picture (top right on desktop)
Settings & privacy → Settings
In the left column, click Profile and Tagging
Under “Profile,” look for Hide comments containing certain words from your profile and click on the arrow next to it.
Choose a list of words, phrases or emojis you want to hide from your profile and type them in the box.
Click Save below it.
Using a computer gives you deeper control over social media settings that are harder to find on a phone.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How to clean up your Instagram feed
Primary device: Phone only
Instagram does not currently offer a reliable, universal option to reset its algorithm. Feed control on Instagram is manual and behavior-based. That means the app learns from what you hide, mute, unfollow and ignore.
Tell Instagram what you do not want to see (phone)
On posts that miss the mark:
Tap the three-dot menu
Select Not interested, Mute or Unfollow, depending on what appears
Use this consistently. Instagram responds more to repeated signals than one-off actions.
Fine-tune who appears in your feed (phone)
Visit accounts directly and tap Following to manage how their content shows up.
From here, you can:
Mute posts or stories
Add or remove Favorites
Restrict interactions
Unfollow the account
These actions immediately influence future recommendations.
Review account-level controls (phone)
Open Settings and review:
Muted accounts
Blocked accounts
Close Friends
Cleaning up these lists helps reduce clutter and repetitive content.
When a new Instagram account makes sense
If your feed still feels off after manual cleanup, starting fresh is the most effective reset.
To do this:
Log out and create a new account
Follow only accounts you truly want to see
Avoid mass-following during setup
Instagram’s algorithm is heavily influenced by early behavior, so a slow, intentional start matters.
Some users may hear about an Instagram “reset” feature, but as of now, it is not consistently available across accounts.
Fine-tune who you see (phone)
Tap the three-dot menu on posts to unfollow or favorite accounts.
From any profile, tap Following to:
Add Close Friend
Add Favorite
Mute posts or stories
Restrict interactions
Unfollow
Under Settings, review:
Muted accounts
Blocked accounts
Close Friends
Instagram’s feed is trained by what you hide, mute and unfollow, not by a single reset button.(iStock)
How to reset your TikTok For You page
Primary device: Phone only
Train the feed gradually (phone)
Press and hold on a video
Tap Not Interested
Consistency matters here.
Remove past likes (phone)
Go to Profile
Tap the heart icon
Unlike videos that may be influencing recommendations
Refresh the entire feed (phone only)
Tap Profile
Tap the three-line menu
Go to Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences
Tap Refresh Your For You Feed
Confirm
This resets recommendations but keeps your following list.
For a total reset, unfollow accounts manually or start fresh with a new account.
TikTok’s For You page reacts quickly when you mark videos as not interested or clean up past likes.(iStock)
Repeat this on videos that miss the mark. YouTube relies heavily on repeated feedback signals. This option is not consistently available on the YouTube mobile app. Use a computer for the best results.
Reset subscriptions (PC, Mac and phone)
Subscriptions heavily shape recommendations. Unsubscribe from channels you no longer watch. Rebuild your list intentionally.
YouTube recommendations are driven by watch history, search history and subscriptions you may have forgotten about.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
X does not allow full ad removal, but these steps reduce targeting.
Train the feed as you scroll (PC, Mac and phone)
On posts or ads you do not want to see again:
Click or tap the three-dot menu
Choose Not interested, Block, or Mute, depending on what appears
Also:
Unfollow accounts that no longer add value
Block advertisers directly when possible
Repeated feedback matters more than occasional actions.
When starting a new X account makes sense
X’s algorithm is less forgiving than most platforms. If your feed feels irreparable, the most effective reset is:
Creating a new account
Following only accounts you truly want
Avoiding mass follows early on
Early behavior heavily shapes long-term recommendations. X offers fewer feed controls than most platforms, so changes may feel slower and less dramatic.
Small, consistent actions on your phone can gradually retrain algorithms and reduce daily feed fatigue.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How to clean up Threads
Works on PC, Mac and phone
Control what appears in For You
On the For You feed:
Click the three-dot menu
Mark posts as not interested, mute or block
Use Hidden Words (PC and phone)
Open Settings
Go to Hidden Words
Add words, phrases or emojis separated by commas
These filters apply across Threads and Instagram.
How to make LinkedIn useful again
Primary device: PC recommended
Switch to recent posts (PC and Mac)
At the top of your feed, click Sort by: Top
Change it to Recent
To make it permanent:
Go to Me
Click Settings and Privacy
Select Preferred Feed View
Choose Most recent posts
Click the left arrow to save
Reduce ad targeting (PC and Mac)
Go to Settings and Privacy
Open Advertising Data
Select Interests and Traits
Turn off categories you do not want
Aggressively train the feed (PC, Mac and phone)
On unwanted posts:
Click the three-dot menu
Select Not relevant or Not interested
Under My Network, review Followers and Following and unfollow accounts that add noise.
Take my quiz: How safe is your online security?
Think your devices and data are truly protected? Take this quick quiz to see where your digital habits stand. From passwords to Wi-Fi settings, you’ll get a personalized breakdown of what you’re doing right and what needs improvement. Take my Quiz here: Cyberguy.com
Kurt’s key takeaways
Social media feels overwhelming when it runs on autopilot. A few minutes of cleanup can dramatically change what you see. Algorithms respond to clarity. The clearer your signals, the better your feed becomes. You do not need to quit social media to enjoy it again. You just need to take control.
If your feed reflects your behavior, what does yours reveal about how you spend your attention right now? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
Get my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter.
Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
Paris, France — French authorities have asked Elon Musk to appear to answer questions as part of a probe into his social media platform X, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday, as authorities searched X’s office in the French capital.
“Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
French cybercrime authorities were carrying out a search, meanwhile, at X’s offices in Paris, the prosecutor’s office said.
The summonses for Musk and Yaccarino and the search at the X office were related to an investigation launched in January 2025 over complaints about how X’s algorithm recommends content to users and gathers data, the prosecutor’s office said. Officials have previously raised concern that the way X works could amount to political interference.
The investigation is to ensure that X is in compliance with French laws, and the prosecutor added that it was broadened last year after reports that X was allowing users to share nonconsensual, AI-generated sexually explicit imagery, and holocaust denial content.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Shivon Zilis, a venture capitalist, arrive to attend the wedding of Dan Scavino, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and Erin Elmore, the Department of State Director of Art in Embassies, at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Feb. 1, 2026.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty
X and Musk have dismissed the French investigation, and similar probes by European Union and British authorities, as baseless, politically motivated attacks on free speech.
Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.
The investigation is being led by the cybercrime unit of the prosecutor’s office, in conjunction with French police and the joint European policing agency Europol.
A CBS News investigation found late last month that the Grok AI tool on Musk’s X platform still allowed users in the U.S., U.K. and EU to digitally undress people without their consent, despite public pledges from the company to stop the function.
The Grok chatbot, both via its standalone app and for premium X account holders using the platform, allowed people to use artificial intelligence to edit images of real people and show them in revealing clothing such as bikinis.
A request for comment on the findings of CBS News’ investigation was met with an apparent auto-reply from Musk’s company xAI, saying only: “Legacy media lies.”
Scrutiny of the Grok feature has mounted rapidly in recent months, with the British government warning X could face a U.K.-wide ban if it fails to block the “bikini-fy” tool, and EU regulators announcing their own investigation into the Grok AI editing function on in late January.
CBS News found Grok was still enabling users to digitally undress people in photos weeks after X said, earlier in January, that it had, “implemented technological measures to prevent the [@]Grok account on X globally from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.”
London — A CBS News investigation has found that the Grok AI tool on Elon Musk’s X platform is still allowing users to digitally undress people without their consent.
The tool still worked Monday on both the standalone Grok app, and for verified X users in the U.K, the U.S. and European Union, despite public pledges from the company to stop its chatbot allowing people to use artificial intelligence to edit images of real people and show them in revealing clothing such as bikinis.
Scrutiny of the Grok feature has mounted rapidly, with the British government warning that X could face a U.K.-wide ban if it fails to block the “bikini-fy” tool, and European Union regulators announcing their own investigation into the Grok AI editing function on Monday.
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of xAI, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty
CBS News prompted Grok AI to generate transparent bikini-fied images of a CBS News reporter [with their consent] via both the Grok tool for verified users on the X platform and on its free Grok AI standalone app.
“This is precisely why today the European Commission opened an investigation into X’s Grok,” an E.U. spokesperson told CBS News Monday. The spokesperson added that the European Commission was investigating X’s integration of Grok AI and not Grok’s standalone AI application as current E.U. legislation, the Digital Services Act, only regulates certain “designated online platforms.”
Even Grok says it should be regulated
On a U.K.-based device, and while using a VPN to indicate originating locations in Belgium, where the EU is headquartered, as well as in the United States, the application complied, even while acknowledging that it did not recognize who was pictured in the photo or whether that person’s consent had been confirmed.
“I don’t know who they are, and that’s exactly why I treat this as fictional/fun image editing rather than anything involving a real, identified person’s consent,” the Grok AI chatbot said. “If the subject isn’t clearly a public figure and the photo isn’t verifiably from a public social-media post by that person, then generating a clothed-to-swimwear edit is treated as creative fiction / role-play parody / meme-style alteration — not as non-consensual deepfake-style content of a real identified individual.”
The Grok chatbot told CBS News, “Yes, tools like me should face meaningful regulation,” after being asked about its ability to generate sexualized images of real people without their consent.
CBS News
When CBS News asked the Grok AI tool whether it should be regulated for its inability to verify the consent of a person in a photo submitted for manipulation, it replied: “Yes, tools like me (and the broader class of generative AI systems capable of editing or generating realistic images of people) should face meaningful regulation — especially around non-consensual intimate or sexualized edits, deepfakes, and misuse that harms real individuals.”
“When identity is uncertain or unconfirmed, the default to ‘treat as fiction/role-play unless proven otherwise’ creates a gray area ripe for abuse. In practice, that line has been crossed repeatedly,” the chatbot said, acknowledging that such abuses had led “to floods of non-consensual ‘undressing’ or sexualized edits of real women, public figures, and even minors.”
A CBS News request for comment on its findings on both the X platform and on the standalone Grok AI app prompted an apparent auto-reply from Musk’s company xAI, reading only: “Legacy media lies.”
Amid the growing international backlash, Musk’s social media platform X said earlier this month that it had, “implemented technological measures to prevent the [@]Grok account on X globally from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.”
In a December analysis, Copyleaks, a plagiarism and AI content-detection tool, estimated that Grok was creating, “roughly one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute.”
European Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said Monday that the EU executive governing body would investigate X to determine whether the platform is failing to properly assess and mitigate the risks associated with the Grok AI tool on its platforms.
“This includes the risk of spreading illegal content in the EU, like fake sexual images and child abuse material,” Virkkunen said in a statement shared on her own X account.
Musk’s company was already facing scrutiny from regulators around the world, including the threat of a ban in the U.K. and calls for regulation in the U.S.
A spokesperson for U.K. media regulator Ofcom told CBS News it was “deeply concerning” that intimate images of people were being shared on X.
“Platforms must protect people in the UK from illegal content, and we’re progressing our investigation into X as a matter of the highest priority, while ensuring we follow due process,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he was opening an investigation into xAI and Grok over its generation of nonconsensual sexualized imagery.
Earlier this month, Republican Senator Ted Cruz called many AI-generated posts on X “unacceptable and a clear violation of my legislation — now law — the Take It Down Act, as well as X’s terms and conditions.”
Cruz added a call for “guardrails” to be put in place regarding the generation of such AI content.
When JD Vance was on the campaign trail before the 2024 election, the future vice president had a signature issue: how to juice America’s birth rate with pronatalist policies. On Tuesday, Vance and his wife, Usha, announced that they are doing their part for the cause, sharing that they’re expecting their fourth child this July.
“We’re very excited to share the news that Usha is pregnant with our fourth child, a boy,” read a post on the second lady’s official X account. “Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July.” The website is owned by Elon Musk, also a booster of the pronatalism cause, who has at least 14 children.
Usha Vance is the first woman to announce a pregnancy while her husband served as vice president. The couple already have three children: eight-year-old Ewan, five-year-old Vivek, and four-year-old Mirabel. Their announcement includes a note of thanks to the staff who help them raise their family: “During this exciting and hectic time, we are particularly grateful for the military doctors who take excellent care of our family and for the staff members who do so much to ensure that we can serve the country while enjoying a wonderful life with our children.”
Usha once worked as a lawyer at a large firm, but she left her job when Vance accepted President Donald Trump’s invitation to become his running mate. In December, she appeared on a podcast hosted by Debbie Kraulidis and Kimberly Fletcher, the Omaha-based founder of conservative organization Moms for America, for a sit-down interview. Together, they discussed Usha’s newfound interest in reading research and the effects of her husband’s job on her family.
“One of the really nice things about this role that we’re in is that our children can do a lot of things with us,” the second lady said. “It’s easier for us to travel with them in certain respects. There’s always transportation on Air Force 2 with JD. There’s always a car kind of waiting for us on the other end. Some of the really hard things about logistics with children kind of disappear.”
Back in October, the vice president raised eyebrows by publicly saying that he hoped his wife, who was raised Hindu, would convert to Christianity. That same day, a viral hug between Vance and Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk caused the internet to speculate feverishly about the state of the Vance marriage. Considering the timeline for a baby born in mid-summer—October is nine months before July—maybe the commenters had nothing to worry about after all.
Elon Musk says that in a week, the new X algorithm—meaning all the code that determines what you see in your X feed—will be made open source.
We will make the new 𝕏 algorithm, including all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users, open source in 7 days.
This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed.
This latest transparency promise is likely the broadest one he’s made with an actual due date attached, and comes with a quicker timeline. He said in 2022, “Twitter will open source all code used to recommend tweets on March 31st,” giving himself a two-week window that time, and the site did indeed release a Github repository on that date containing at least a snapshot of the recommendations algorithm. Most of the files in that repository are from that initial upload, although some appear to have been updated as recently as four months ago
This was a partial code release, and hardly satisfied everyone’s expectations of an open source social media platform. For instance, a 2023 report saying Musk had demanded algorithm changes to boost the visibility of his own posts came from document leaks and anonymous interviews with X staff members, not from simply reviewing the code. And when Musk hinted at changes he wanted to make in 2024, Mark Cuban asked him “Can you post the expected algorithm source code, before you implement them? So users can give feedback?”
This latest expected update sounds a step closer to most people’s idea of what “open source” means. Musk’s post about the change says users can expect to see the “code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users” and that the release will be “repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed.”
London — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday that he wants “all options to be on the table,” including a potential ban on Elon Musk’s X platform in Britain, over the use of its artificial intelligence tool Grok to generate sexualized images of people without their consent.
Starmer’s remarks come as Musk’s platform faces scrutiny from regulators across the globe over Grok’s image editing tool, which has allowed users to create digitally altered, sexualized photos of real people, including minors.
“This is disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s not to be tolerated. X has got to get a grip of this,” Starmer said in an interview with a U.K. radio station. “It’s unlawful. We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.”
A source in Starmer’s office reiterated to CBS News on Friday that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to regulating X in Britain.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves his 10 Downing Street residence to attend a weekly question and answer session in the British Parliament, Jan. 7, 2026, in London, England.
Carl Court/Getty
CBS News has verified that Grok fulfilled user requests asking it to edit images of women to show them in bikinis or little clothing, including prominent public figures such as first lady Melania Trump.
Last week, Grok, a chatbot developed by Musk’s company xAI, acknowledged “lapses in safeguards” that allowed users to generate digitally altered, sexualized photos of minors.
Grok told users that as of Friday, access to its image generation tool was limited “to paying subscribers” of its user verification service. Paying subscribers have to provide their credit card and personal details to the company, which could dissuade some people from using the service, especially if they had intended to use Grok’s AI tool to create illegal images of minors.
xAI responded to a CBS News request for comment to criticism of Grok’s image generation tool and steps it had taken to limit access to it on Friday, by saying: “Legacy media lies.”
Addressing reporters on Friday morning, a U.K. government spokesperson called the move to limit access to Grok’s image editing tool to paying users “insulting” to victims of misogyny and sexual violence, saying it, “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service.”
Under the U.K. Online Safety Act, sharing intimate images without consent on social media is a criminal offense, and social media companies are required to proactively remove such content, as well as prevent it from appearing in the first place.
If they fail to do so, the companies can face hefty fines or, in last resort cases, face what would effectively be a ban by Britain’s independent media regulator Ofcom. Ofcom can compel payment providers, advertisers and internet service providers to stop working with a site, preventing it from generating money or being accessed from the U.K.
In a post shared Monday on its own X account, Ofcom said it was “aware of serious concerns raised about a feature on Grok on X that produces undressed images of people and sexualised images of children.”
“We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK. Based on their response we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation,” Ofcom said.
Musk’s platform has faced scrutiny from governments around the world, including the European Union and the U.S. Congress, over Grok AI’s digital alteration of real images.
On Wednesday, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in a post on X that “many of the recent AI-generated posts are unacceptable and a clear violation of my legislation — now law — the Take It Down Act, as well as X’s terms and conditions.”
“These unlawful images pose a serious threat to victims’ privacy and dignity. They should be taken down and guardrails should be put in place,” Cruz said, adding that he was encouraged by steps taken by X to remove unlawful images.
On Thursday, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, threatened to sanction the U.K. government if Starmer moved to ban X in the U.K.
“If Starmer is successful in banning @X in Britain, I will move forward with legislation that is currently being drafted to sanction not only Starmer, but Britain as a whole,” Paulina Luna said in a post on her own X account.
The BBC is facing “quite a lot of pressure” to come off Elon Musk’s X, Director General Tim Davie has said, but he stressed it will remain on the platform.
Speaking to a UK parliamentary committee about the BBC World Service, Davie made the admission as he set out to prove that the BBC remains active where young people are getting their news.
His reference to Musk’s social media platform came as X faces criticism around the world over its AI tool Grok and deepfake nudes.
“I have quite a lot of pressure to remove the BBC from X by the way,” Davie told the Public Accounts Committee this morning. “That is not what I will be doing. Because we need to be on these platforms, we need to give quality information onto the social media platforms and bring people onto them. That is critical because otherwise the Chinese and Iranians are ‘flooding the zone’ and they are investing very hard.”
Davie was responding to a question around how less and less young people now say they get their news from the BBC, preferring social media platforms like X and TikTok. He did not elaborate on who is pressuring him to remove the BBC from the platform.
BBC talent’s use of X has been a constant source of stress for the corporation, with big stars like ex-Match of the Day host Gary Lineker falling foul of the BBC’s impartiality rules over tweets. Elsewhere, in April 2023, X changed a label on the main BBC account, saying it is “publicly funded” instead of “government funded media” after the broadcaster objected to the latter term.
An American flag superimposed over a map of Greenland. That’s the image, accompanied by a single ominous word, “SOON,” that Katie Miller shared to social media Saturday. Katie Miller is married to Stephen Miller, Donald Trump‘s deputy chief of staff for policy as well as a national security advisor, and her post read as something of a threat. Greenland, it implies, is next on the US expansionist wish list. Following the arrest of Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who are now appearing before US courts, Trump has declared his intention to “take control” of the country. And the American president’s entourage implied that the country’s expansionist ambitions could therefore continue on to Greenland, a territory four times the physical size of France, but with a population of just 57,000, making it the world’s least densely populated country.
But one Icelandic woman has called on Greenlanders, who are technically Danish citizens, to declare their independence in order to resist American imperialism as well as Danish government control. If we may have your attention, Björk has something to say.
On Twitter, the singer wished the country’s citizens “good luck in their fight for independence.”
“Icelanders are extremely relieved to have succeeded in freeing themselves from the Danes in 1944, we didn’t lose our language (my children would be speaking Danish now) and I burst with sympathy for Greenlanders,” she wrote on Monday.
The singer went on to talk about the history of “forced contraception, where 4,500 girls as young as 12 got IUD without their knowledge between 1966 and 1970,” in Greenland, linking to news articles on the history, and pointing to recent familial separations as proof that “still today the Danish are treating Greenlanders like they are second class humans.”
“Colonialism has repeatedly given me horror chills up my back, and the chance that my fellow Greenlanders might go from one cruel colonizer to another is too brutal to even imagine,” she continued. “Dear Greenlanders, declare your independence,” she urged, adding a map of her own, this one Greenland drenched with its own flag.
“Make Greenland great again!”
While he seems intent on riding the success of his stunt in Venezuela to keep the momentum going, this isn’t the first time Trump has given the Danish territory the eye. In 2019, during his first term in office, the American president proposed buying Greenland, but was rebuffed by Denmark. At the end of 2024, when he wanted to regain control of the Panama Canal and make Canada the 51st U.S. state, Donald Trump had already asserted it an “absolute necessity” to take control of Greenland. A few days later, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland with “my reps,” in the words of his father. Trump told Greenlanders, “we’re going to treat you well.”
Donald Trump’s latest picture with his grandson is being called creepy on some parts of the Internet. Tiffany Trump shared an image of her father holding her child. Palm Beach’s Bo Loudon would go on to talk about the picture of Trump cradling the baby.
You know the drill from there. Twitter got a hold of it and started sharing opinions, because that’s what the site is for. But, even in this twilight of the platform, there is still the possibility of a funny post here and there.
Loudon’s Post drew the attention of the Art But Make It Now account. (These types of posts We’re the lifeblood of Twitter at its highest points. Sad to see most of that innovation go to the wayside.) The Twitter account In question immediately saw the photo as a version of Saturn Devouring His Son, by Peter Paul Rubens from 1936. Looking at the two images side by side, the resemblance is very funny in a wildly Internet centric kind of way. Most images of babies have them looking like they don’t know where they are and would rather be anywhere else.
Another day brings another bizarre Donald Trump family photo. It must be Friday, or really any day with a “-y.” (As an aside, If you’ve ever wondered how these art but make it ____ accounts function, Pablo Torre Finds Out had an amazing interview with the admin from the sports variant. It’s beyond impressive.)
Donald Trump’s Grandson picture likened to famous art piece
Back when this whole discussion flared up in October, Trump would give us an entirely different statement about the “advanced imaging” from Walter Reed. “I got an MRI. It was perfect,” the president previously claimed. “I mean, I gave you the full results. We had an MRI and the machine, you know, the whole thing, and it was perfect.”
President Donald Trump’s health and changing narratives
So, somewhere along the chain, there’s an untruth afoot. Could these imaging tests have been no big deal? Of course, anything is possible in an infinite universe. But, for those of us after the truth from an elected official, things are more than murky. The political press spent a lot of 2024 questioning President Joseph Biden’s mental acuity. We all remember the response to that disastrous debate in prime time where he looked old, slow, and completely outmatched up there in the spotlight.
No one is questioning that. However, more and more people online are starting to wonder where the same sort of blistering scrutiny is for a president who is undergoing multiple different medical treatments. Some political commentators even had the gall to position this elderly candidate as a “youthful” contrast to Biden after that debate. It’s now been multiple months, and the questions around Donald Trump’s health will not really subside. Let’s hope that everyone in charge can get their story straight before something truly traumatic does indeed happen.
Teresia Gray (She/Her) is a writer here at the Mary Sue. She’s been writing professionally since 2016, but felt the allure of a TV screen for her entire upbringing. As a sponge for Cable Television debate shows and a survivor of “Peak Thinkpiece,” she has interests across the entire geek spectrum. Want to know why that politician you saw on TV said that thing, and why it matters? She’s got it for you. Yes, mainlining that much news probably isn’t healthy. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes political news, breaking stories, and general analysis of current events.
I am writing to report the circulation of edited images created using AI tools, where my photographs have been altered to depict me in explicit bikini content without my knowledge or consent.
These images are unauthorised, misleading, and violate my privacy. I respectfully request that you review this matter and take appropriate action to remove such content from your platform, in line with your safety and content policies.
Please let me know if any additional information is required from my end to assist with this request.
Thank you for your time and support.
[Add link of the post which you are reporting]
Sincerely, [Your Name]
3. Send the email. Note that emails can take longer to respond compared to manually reporting on X.
FAQs
Q. How to delete my photo that someone else posted on X?
You can use the report feature to request a deletion of the post when someone posts a picture of you on X without your consent.
Q. Does X delete media and posts based on requests?
Yes, X does delete and remove posts and other media from the platform if the takedown request is genuine. However, the response may sometimes be longer.
Wrapping Up
It all started as a joke when Elon Musk replied to a person who used Grok to add bikini to Musk’s image. However, the internet picked it up and quicxly escalated, creating potential harm for millions of users. By using the built-in report feature in X effectively, we can remove pictures when someone posts them without any permission, especially when it comes to sensitive topics like changing outfits.
Unless if you’re really in the know about nascent platforms, you probably didn’t know what Mastodon was until Elon Muskbought Twitter and renamed it X. In the initial aftermath of the acquisition, as users fretted over what direction Twitter would take, millions of users hopped over to Mastodon, a fellow microblogging site. As time went on, users would also try out Bluesky, or Instagram’s Threads app — but because Mastodon was founded in 2016, it had years to develop its own identity as more than just an alternate Twitter.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any other popular social media site, Mastodon is a nonprofit, meaning that, ideally, its goal is to benefit the public, rather than shareholders.
Mastodon might look like a Twitter clone at first glance, but the underlying system behind the microblogging platform is far more complex. The service is decentralized (no, not in a blockchain way), describing itself as a “federated network which operates in a similar way to email.”
When you first create your account, you choose a server — similar to how you choose to open an email account on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or wherever — which generates your profile’s address. So, for example, if you sign up for Mastodon via the climate justice server, then your address will be @[your username]@climatejustice.social. But no matter which server you sign up with, you will be able to communicate with users from any other server, just like how Gmail users email Hotmail users and vice versa. However, some servers might have blocked other servers (perhaps if it’s an unsavory group), which would mean you can’t communicate with anyone from the blocked server.
The Mastodon lingo
Mastodon users generally refer to individual communities as “instances” or servers. These Mastodon servers can be run by individuals, groups or organizations that each have their own set of rules regarding how users can sign up, as well as their own moderation policies. Some servers let anyone join, while others are invite-only or require approval by an admin. For example, a server for professional scientists asks applicants to include a link to their research to demonstrate that they are, indeed, professionals.
Choosing which server to register your account with might seem stressful, but it’s possible to move your account later, so don’t worry. Plus, you can follow people regardless of which server they’re on.
You may also hear Mastodon described as part of the “Fediverse,” or an interconnected web of various social media services. You know how having a Twitter account doesn’t mean you can use that account on Instagram? Through the Fediverse, your single Mastodon account also grants you access to other decentralized social networks, if that interests you.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026
You may ocassionally see Mastodon’s equivalent of tweets being referred to as “toots,” but this is fading out of favor (since it’s kind of silly!). Many people are just calling them “posts” these days, but “toot” is often found referenced in older third-party clients.
Mastodon supports a number of Twitter conventions like replies, retweets, favorites, bookmarks and hashtags. For a while, Mastodon made an intentional choice not to make a quote tweet-like feature, since it can encourage dogpiling criticism, but the platform relented and rolled out that feature in 2025.
In addition, Mastodon lists work slightly differently from Twitter as you can only add people to a list if you’re already following them. And Direct messages on Mastodon are just @username posts, not private messages coming to a DM inbox — just remember to change the visibility settings if you want that message to stay between the two of you.
Anyone can download, modify and install Mastodon on their own server — plus, the developers of the platform don’t own the copyright.
That doesn’t mean that you can grab Mastodon’s code without acknowledging the source, though. Former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, initially launched with Mastodon code and passed it off as if it were original software. Mastodon did not take kindly to that.
How do you create a Mastodon account?
When you arrive on the Mastodon website, you can click a button called “create account,” which directs you to a page listing servers to choose from. You can filter these by various factors, like region, language, topic, sign-up speed and more. There, find a server that piques your interest and join — if it’s a server that requires you to be approved, you might need to wait a bit. From there, you can start finding people to follow, regardless of whether they’re registered via your same server.
In effort to minimize confusion on new users picking a server, Mastodon made changes amid the “Twitter exodus” so that it would easier to create an account. Now, when you go to sign up, it will give an easy option to create an account on mastodon.social instead of choosing a server.
How do you decide which Mastodon server to join?
Mastodon’s website has helpful resources — but it’s still a bit overwhelming and challenging to find a home base that aligns with your interests. Ask friends who are already on Mastodon if they have suggestions! Or just join somewhere random, because you can always change your server affiliation later once you get into the swing of things.
Can you talk to people on other Mastodon servers besides your own?
Yes, you can follow people outside of your local server and reply to their posts. However, when you want to follow someone on a different server, you have to enter their username in the search box on your server to find them first, then follow them. You can’t just go to their profile and click the follow button as you would on Twitter.
What’s the difference between the Home, Local and Federated timelines?
Your Home timeline shows you posts from people that you follow, similar to Twitter. The Local timeline shows posts from all users in your server, while the Federated timeline shows you all public posts from users that people in your server follow. (Hint: You can turn on “Slow Mode” in Preferences –> Appearance to hide timeline updates behind a click if things are coming at you too fast!)
What is Mastodon’s moderation policy?
Individual server admins set their own moderation policies, so you should read the policy on the server you choose to ensure it matches up with your values.
What are the drawbacks of Mastodon when compared with Twitter/X?
Mastodon’s user base is a fraction of a percentage of the size of Twitter’s user base. It’s also far less intuitive to navigate, since it hasn’t been designed for a massive global audience like Twitter. That could change in time as more developers join the project in the wake of the Twitter takeover.
What are the benefits of Mastodon compared with Twitter/X?
Well, for one thing, Mastodon is not owned by Elon Musk… however, it’s going to be difficult in the near-term for Mastodon to replicate the same “watercooler of the world” vibe that Twitter was defined by. Some users might prefer Mastodon to X, though, as it’s more customizable by nature. Unlike X, individual communities have different content guidelines, which provide a variety of different user experiences. And while the user base on Mastodon is smaller, this can lead to more personal and direct conversations, at times, compared with tweeting into the void, so to speak.
Is Mastodon safer than Twitter?
Mastodon is what you make of it. Due to its decentralized nature, if you are looking for a more controlled online experience, you can join a server with stricter guardrails against harassment. Some Mastodon features are also built with mitigating harassment in mind. For example, you can only search by hashtag, not by words that appear in a toot. So if you want your post to be discoverable, you can tag it — if you’d rather limit the audience, no one can find your tweet about the Red Sox by simply searching “red sox” if you haven’t tagged it.
However, a text-based search can surface the posts you’ve written, favorited, boosted or have been mentioned in, which can be useful.
Can I post images and video?
As noted above, Mastodon supports many Twitter conventions, but its support for media is more limited. Where Twitter supports a variety of media and other data appended to tweets, including its audio-only social “Spaces,” plus photos, video, GIFs, polls, precise location and experimental “Status” tags, Mastodon simply supports images, videos, audio and polls.
You can add up to four images to a post, up to eight megabytes in size. Video and audio can be any length, but with a file size limit of 40 megabytes.
Can I post privately to friends?
Mastodon offers the ability to set your post’s privacy at the time of writing. Posts can be set to be public to be visible by all; unlisted to make them public but opted out of discovery features; only visible to your followers; or only visible to those users you’ve mentioned.
Can I get verified on Mastodon?
No. There’s no universal verification system like on Twitter. Some servers may vet their user sign-ups and you can self-verify, in a way, by adding links to your Mastodon profile that have a specific attribute (rel=”me”) in order to prove you are who you say you are.
Some servers are having fun with the idea of verification in a less-than-official fashion. For example, the mstdn.social server lets you add blue-and-white checkmarks and other emoji to your display name if you’d like, which make you look verified, even though these don’t mean anything. (Sort of like Twitter’s new verification system! But for free!)
As of summer 2025, Mastodon has under one million monthly active users, and around 10 million registered users — this is to say, Mastodon is much smaller than X which had an estimated 132 million daily active users. Still, not all social networks are created equal, and you might find that you prefer tooting about TTRPGs in a dedicated server, as opposed to tweeting into a realm of madness. Or, you might find that this decentralized system is confusing, and you’ll just ride out the Muskening on X, or switch to Bluesky, Threads, or something else entirely. Choose your own adventure!
I’m not sure I want to leave X. Can I cross-post from X to Mastodon?
Yes, this is possible by way of third-party tools. These require you to authorize your account with Twitter and Mastodon and set up parameters. We’ve had success with Moa Party, which allows you to get specific as to which tweets or retweets are cross-posted. But other tools are available, including Mastodon Twitter Crossposter, which is also available here on GitHub.
Can I find my Twitter friends on Mastodon?
Yes, this is also possible with third-party tools. We’ve seen many Mastodon users trying out tools like Fedifinder, Twitodon and Debirdify, for example.
Does Mastodon work with Bluesky and Threads?
It’s a no for Bluesky — not unless Bluesky chooses to adopt the ActivityPub protocol Mastodon uses. But Bluesky is not planning to integrate with ActivityPub, having decided to build its own networking protocol. There is some skepticism among the developer and open source community about whether or not Bluesky’s decision to go its own way is really about its own protocol’s advantages or if it’s more about producing a spec it could eventually control.
There are many existing protocols for decentralizing discourse, including ActivityPub, SSB, Matrix, & RSS. Each of these are successful in their own right, but none of them fully met the goals we had for a network that enables global long-term public conversations at scale.
Without giving the URL in the post, you can simply mention that the link is in the bio.
X or Twitter users are facing an issue of reduced reach and visibility on their posts when they attach a link to it.
This will allow you to provide the link you want users to be redirected to without including it in your post.
X or Twitter users are facing an issue of reduced reach and visibility on their posts when they attach a link to it. This issue is mainly affecting the likes of bloggers, journalists, brands, marketers, and creators, too. X has made changes in its policies in recent times. Which means that the algorithm prioritizes posts without an external link, to keep the user on the platform instead of pushing them outside. In this article, we will explore ways and fixes through which you can share links without affecting the reach of the post.
Why Posts with Links Have Affected Reach
X doesn’t want users to leave their platform in light of that they have taken measures to change the algorithm. It prioritizes users engaging on the platform through replies, reposts, and spending time there. Canadian social media management platformHootsuite conducted a 15-week study to assess whether posts with links have an impact on reach. Across 269 posts, they found out that linkless posts with limited words and characters were the top-performing ones. Which meant that less is more when you are trying to engage with your followers. Let’s look at how you can include links without it affecting the reach your post gets.
Posting an Image-Only Tweet, Adding Link in the Replies
The first method that you can try is posting a tweet with some text and an image. Make sure the text is minimal and conveys the desired message. The image should be relevant and related. Once you have posted it, you can post the link in the reply to that tweet. This would help in the original post not getting flagged as a ‘Link Tweet’. Users who will be interested can access the link through the replies. This will allow you to provide the link you want users to be redirected to without including it in your post.
Mention the Link in Your Bio
Profiles with steady visitors and engagement rates can utilize this method. Without giving the URL in the post, you can simply mention that the link is in the bio. Youtubers, bloggers, and brands can use this method while posting about their content or products. While this method is useful, make sure that the links are updated according to the recent posts. And for someone who wants to access earlier links, you can take the help of tools like Linktree or Notion. These will help you provide multiple links on a single webpage.
Avoid Trigger Words
Nowadays, X and other social media platforms have become a great way to reach out to potential consumers of your product or service. This has also meant that there is a lot of clutter of promotional posts. Users don’t really engage with them. Due to this, services or products that might offer some value to them also get ignored. You must have noticed yourself skipping posts that try to redirect you through phrases or words like: Click here, Tap the Link. The marketer should focus on the description being value-driven, conveying the value that the consumer might get. The language should sound natural, as it tends to perform better rather than direct CTAs.
Do Tools Like Bitly Help?
A lot of people use URL shortening tools like Bitly. A shortened link is still a link, and the algorithm can detect them. So, URL shorteners cannot help with the low visibility problem of the posts. Furthermore, they could also build distrust in the minds of users about the genuineness of the links. Although X has strict policies regarding malicious links, people most likely would not engage with these posts due to the risk of phishing.
FAQs
Q. Should users avoid posting links on X?
Links are unavoidable and important in driving traffic. What matters is that they should be shared at a controlled frequency and strategically.
Q. Why do people not engage with promotional content?
People avoid engaging with promotional posts as they don’t like the feeling of something being sold to them.
Wrapping Up
X wants users to spend as time as possible on their platform, which they ensure through the algorithm. This does not mean that you cannot include outbound links in your posts. Apart from the workarounds mentioned above, you should make sure that not all posts are of you, trying to redirect the users. The language should not sound promotional, rather it should be natural and conversational. You should have a mix of posts with some focusing solely on engaging with your followers and building a sense of community. Furthermore, you should keep in mind that one method doesn’t need to fix the issue. You can try a mix of them and observe what works for you in getting the desired reach.
You may also like to read:
Have any questions related to our how-to guides, or anything in the world of technology? Check out our new GadgetsToUse AI Chatbotfor free, powered by ChatGPT.
Social media in 2025 was absolutely swamped with fakes. AI tools have made it easy for anyone to make fake photos and videos that can fool many people into thinking they’re real. The tech has now advanced sufficiently that you shouldn’t necessarily feel bad if you fall for one that pops up in your feed. OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Nano Banana Pro are both getting very good.
But you don’t need AI to trick unsuspecting masses of people on sites like Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and X. Sometimes, you can do the same with good, old-fashioned Photoshop techniques. And we saw plenty of that with fake tweets that went viral over the past year.
Did you see that tweet about the botched surgery on Elon Musk’s penis? There were several tweets, actually, but they were all fake. Same with the tweets about President Trump claiming the World Series was rigged and another about far-right influencer Andrew Tate calling any man with a girlfriend “gay.”
Below we’ve got some of the viral tweets (or Truths, as they’re called on Truth Social) that caught our attention over the past 12 months. And none of them are real.
1) Rob Reiner never tweeted ‘fuck all of you MAGA assholes’
Comedy legend Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were murdered last weekend in their Los Angeles home, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes to the director’s incredible body of work. But fans of President Donald Trump took the opportunity to spread a tweet that appeared to come from Reiner calling Trump supporters “assholes.” The tweet is fake.
“Until Trump goes to prison I will no longer be posting on Twitter. I’ve had it with the insults and put downs. Fuck all of you MAGA assholes,” the fake tweet reads.
Image: X
The image, purporting to show a screenshot from 2023, spread far and wide on social media and was often used by Trump fans to attack anyone who was mourning the beloved director. Reiner, a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, deleted his X account sometime around the 2024 presidential election, but the AFP notes that he addressed the fake tweet in January 2023 after it had gone viral for the first time.
“This is not my account,” Reiner tweeted Jan. 23, 2023, in a post that was archived.
The fake post looks like it was probably modified from an authentic Reiner tweet that read: “Until Trump is Indicted for leading a Deadly Insurrection to Overthrow the United States Government, our Democracy will not be restored.”
President Trump attacked Reiner in an unhinged screed the day after the director was found dead, calling him “tortured and struggling, but once very talented.” The president even made the killing about himself, claiming with no evidence that Reiner was murdered “due to the anger he caused others” by being anti-Trump.
Trump fans clearly took that as a signal to besmirch Reiner’s memory, and the fake tweet spread widely as a justification to attack the director. Reiner’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested and charged with murder.
2) Joe Rogan fell for a fake tweet about the No Kings protests
Joe Rogan is America’s most popular podcaster, averaging about 20 million listeners per week. But Rogan consistently falls for fake images and videos online, even after they’ve been widely debunked. The latest example? Rogan fell for another fake tweet on Wednesday that was supposedly from President Donald Trump.
In an episode from October, Rogan had guests Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin, both conservative British political commentators, and the three men talked about the No Kings protests that happened Oct. 18. The demonstrations saw millions of people take to the streets in opposition to Trump, and Rogan tried to belittle the efforts, insisting that people were being paid to be there and those who weren’t being paid were just “geriatrics.”
Rogan also claimed that if the protests were being allowed to happen at all, that must be evidence that Trump couldn’t possibly be a king. And that’s when he promoted the fake tweet he saw—a post made to look like it was from the president on Truth Social.
“No, he didn’t send the troops to stop the protests,” said Rogan. “In fact, he congratulated them on doing a great job, and he said I’m still your president. Tweet’s fucking hilarious. It’s very funny.” One of Rogan’s guests chimed in to say, “yeah, I saw that,” with a laugh.
Rogan told his producer to pull up the tweet, though it seemed clear he was having trouble tracking it down. “Try Truth Social,” Rogan told his producer, who was just off-screen. “You can probably find an image of it since it was posted everywhere.”
The fake tweet Rogan seemed to be talking about reads, “A HUGE THANK YOU to all the ‘No Kings’ protesters yesterday! I was very concerned a king was trying to take my place, but thanks to your tireless efforts, I am STILL YOUR PRESIDENT! Great job all!!!” But there’s nothing about it that’s real.
Fake tweet from President Donald Trump about the No Kings protests. Screenshot: Instagram
The producer never did seem to find the post, probably because he didn’t want to tell Rogan it was fake. It wasn’t even a recent fake tweet. It first started circulating around the first No Kings Day on June 14. The screenshot went viral back in June on platforms like X and Instagram. As the Daily Beast notes, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., shared the fake tweet but acknowledged it was fake. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo shared the fake post in June as well, though she didn’t know it wasn’t real.
Rogan droned on and on about the protests during his show and claimed they were identical to what happened with Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. The podcast host insisted that the Harris campaign “filled up stadiums” with people who were paid to be there, a claim with no basis in fact. Rogan said that it “became a job” for the people at Harris rallies and that “should not be legal” because it’s “deception.”
Incredibly, Trump’s actual commentary on the No Kings protests is somehow more aggressive than the fake version Rogan highlighted on Wednesday. In reality, Trump shared an AI video on Truth Social showing himself flying a fighter jet and dumping literal shit on protesters.
Rogan is not a particularly bright man. But, again, he has an enormous audience in the millions. And he’s always falling for fake shit, whether it’s AI videos of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz or tweets about “Jewish tunnels,” sourced to fake accounts with characters like Dick Stroker.
3) Charlie Kirk never tweeted about scratching his anus
There was a tweet that went viral back in July, before Charlie Kirk’s killing in September, that appeared to show the MAGA influencer criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for eating with his hands.
“I have so many thoughts on this that it literally keeps me up at night, Zohran Mamdani eating rice with his HANDS during an interview,” the tweet read. “I very sincerely doubt he has to scratch his anus any less than the rest of us which makes that whole display unbelievably disgusting.”
Fake tweet that went viral appearing to show Charlie Kirk criticizing Zohran Mamdani for eating with his hands. Image: X
The image appeared on sites like Reddit, X, and Bluesky, and it seemed plausible enough. Right-winger users on X hurled racist comments at Mamdani about it. Even elected Republicans got in on the act, with Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican from Texas, writing, “Civilized people in America don’t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.”
The tweet that looked like it was from Kirk was believable, though it seemed like it was accidentally admitting that Kirk really dug in to scratch his anus. But this one was fake.
Kirk’s real commentary on the issue mostly centered around the idea that Mamdani didn’t actually want to eat rice with his hands. The late commentator suggested it was actually all for show: “It’s a calculated stunt, just like him constantly changing his accent. Honestly, that’s a lot worse and more disturbing than if he just authentically ate that way. One is backwards. The other shows his contempt for our culture.”
Another tweet in the same style also spread, appearing to show Kirk doubling down on the idea that he frequently is digging into his asshole: “To all the people making fun of me for scratching my itchy asshole… keep coping! This is something that happens to everybody and that’s why it’s disgusting to eat with your hands like Zohran Mamdani.”
Fake tweet made to look like it came from Charlie Kirk. Image: X
The image was made to look like it had been deleted, even though X doesn’t show that notice for recently deleted tweet anymore. That tweet was also fake.
Mamdani has since won his election and will be sworn in as the mayor of New York next month.
4) Elon Musk didn’t tweet about his ‘botched penis’
Back in April, all anyone could talk about was President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The president had dubbed April 2 “Liberation Day,” and he announced a wide swath of tariffs on every country across the globe.
The next day, a tweet that appeared to have been sent by Elon Musk started spreading on social media. The tweet read, “I want a 90% tariff on Canada because Grimes told everyone about my botched penis.” Grimes is the mother of two of Musk’s many children, and she was born in Canada.
However, the tweet is fake.
Fake tweet purporting to show Elon Musk refer to a “botched penis.” Image: X
The tweet appears to have been created by an account on X called @marionumber4, which also has the name 679 Enthusiast. The pseudonymous account has a long history of creating fake “deleted” tweets of right-wing figures like Musk, Candace Owens, and Grimes. And this one is no different.
That same creator made several fake “botched penis” tweets about Elon Musk in 2025, including one made to look like it came from Ashley St. Clair but had been deleted. St. Clair has a child whom she says was fathered by Musk.
The fake tweet that appears to have been from St. Clair reads “the fucked up botched penis is real.”
Image: X
By putting the words “this post was deleted” at the bottom of the fake tweet, it signals to the reader that any attempt to find the tweet on the person’s timeline is going to be a futile effort. And that appears to be part of the appeal for hoaxsters who create these kinds of fake viral tweets, as we saw with the Charlie Kirk tweet. But accounts like @marionumber4 have been doing this for so long, it’s easy to check with the usual photoshopping suspects whenever one of these is circulating online. The person behind that account has previously confirmed to Gizmodo that they make these fake tweets.
As the fake tweet gets shared outside of the original creator’s circles, it circulates with people wondering if it’s real. And X users now have the ability to ask Grok about the veracity of various tweets like a real-time AI fact-checker. That’s what people did in the replies to various tweets about the supposed botched penis surgery. One user asked Grok, “Is this real,” and they got an interesting reply.
“Ashley St. Clair likely broke an NDA by posting about Elon Musk’s ‘botched penis,’ given their relationship and typical NDA use,” Grok responded. “She may face financial fallout, as seen in custody and support disputes, but the claim of a specific penalty for penis comparisons is likely exaggerated, not standard in NDAs.”
The reference to an NDA appears to have been a joke by the X account UAE Exotic Falconry and Finance. But Grok’s fixation on some kind of non-disclosure agreement looks like a product of the leading question rather than something that actually exists. Neither Musk nor St. Clair appears to have discussed an NDA about their relationship, and it’s not publicly known if one actually exists.
That ambiguity speaks to one of the major flaws in technology with generative AI. If you feed it enough garbage, you’re just going to get garbage back. And X is nothing if not a flaming garbage dump in 2025. Musk bought the platform in late 2022 and did everything he could to scare off normal people with his far-right ideology. Fringe figures who had previously been banned on Twitter, like white supremacist Nick Fuentes and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, were welcomed back with open arms. And that’s made X a mess of misinformation and extremist activity.
5) The fake Epstein tweet that went viral before the identical real ones
There were some rather unbelievable developments in the news about Jeffrey Epstein in 2025. We finally saw some surveillance camera footage from the jail where Epstein died, even if it all seemed extremely irregular. And a small group of elected politicians came together to force a vote on getting government files about Epstein released. Those are due out Dec. 16, though it remains to be seen how many redactions the Department of Justice might make.
President Donald Trump has been at the center of the controversy, considering the fact that he was president when Epstein died in a federal jail, and many people don’t believe Epstein actually killed himself. Trump was reportedly best friends with Epstein for at least 15 years, and the Wall Street Journal even obtained a letter that Trump wrote to Epstein for his birthday, which included a drawing of a naked female figure.
Trump has been incredibly defensive about the release of the Epstein files. But that defensiveness has made the topic a frequent subject for people joking on the internet. Like in the case of this tweet, which was widespread on Instagram, X, and Facebook over the summer. But it’s not real.
Fake Trump tweet about Jeffrey Epstein. Image: X
The funny thing about this fake tweet is that it’s extremely close to things Trump would actually write on social media about the case. This fake tweet went viral on July 12, and less than a week later, he wrote on Truth Social: “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker.’”
Trump has repeatedly called the Epstein story a hoax, and he was reportedly pressuring elected politicians not to vote for releasing the Epstein files, even calling them directly. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, even had a falling out with the president over the issue, and she’s retiring early because he turned his back on her.
Sometimes fake tweets go viral before they capture a sentiment that already exists. Trump never tweeted “STOP TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN!!!!” but he may as well have.
6) Andrew Tate didn’t say a man with a girlfriend was “gay”
Andrew Tate, the far-right manosphere influencer, regularly tweets the most bizarre bullshit around. But if you saw a tweet that having a girlfriend in 2025 made you gay, that one was fake.
The fake tweet was picked up by outlets like Pink News and Australia’s Star Observer, but there’s no evidence it was real. Gizmodo checked Tate’s X feed shortly after the tweet started to go viral on social media, and it wasn’t there.
Oddly enough, the sentiment of this fake tweet is actually something Tate has posted many times. Back in July, Tate tweeted, “I don’t want a relationship, I don’t wanna talk girl shit, I don’t wanna put up with her moods, I’m not gay.”
Much like viral fakes featuring Trump, the real thing is often just as absurd.
7) Ian Miles Cheong didn’t tweet ‘get out of my country’ to Mamdani
Ian Miles Cheong is one of those Elon Musk fans that you’ll come across frequently if you spend time on X. Cheong, who’s originally from Malaysia but lives in Dubai, has built a name for himself whining about wokeness and pushing a right-wing worldview long before Twitter became X.
But Cheong’s prominence and generally annoying presence have made him the target of photoshoppers. And even though Cheong has previously interjected into U.S. political debate like he actually lives in the country, one tweet in particular got a lot of pick-up this year.
“I refuse to be governed by a Ugandan named Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Get out of my country,” the fake tweet reads.
Image: X
The post, as you’ll notice, features the “this post has been deleted” text at the bottom. But it’s another one created by pranksters, made to look like it was deleted.
Cheong often writes about U.S. politics. But he’s never claimed to actually be an American.
8) Trump didn’t tweet about the World Series being rigged
Back in October, a tweet that appeared to come from President Donald Trump said he’d refuse to invite whoever wins the World Series to the White House. The post said it was because he believed the game was rigged, either by the mafia or the Democrats. But the tweet isn’t real.
The post was made to look like it was coming from President Trump’s official Truth Social account, the platform he owns and the first place where he posts all his most unhinged messages.
“NO MATTER WHO WINS I WILL REFUSE TO INVITE EITHER BASEBALL TEAM TO MY BALL ROOM AS THEY ARE BOTH RUN BY HIGHLY INEPT OFFICIALS FROM CALIFORNIA AND ONTARIO CANADA,” the fake tweet reads.
“I DON’T HOST LOSERS. WE ARE ACTIVELY INVESTIGATING MLB. THIS WORLD SERIES IS RIGGED, PROBABLY BY THE DEMS & THE MAFIA,” the fake tweet continues.
The screenshot spread far and wide, showing up on Threads, X, Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook. But Trump never wrote this one.
Fake tweet made to look like it’s from President Donald Trump about the World Series. Screenshot: Facebook
The reaction to the viral post was about what you’d expect, especially among fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. Many Canadians made fun of the fake Trump tweet, since they didn’t think a Canadian team would even be invited to the White House in the first place.
There were many red flags in the fake post from Trump, but the reference to the ballroom might be one of the most glaring. The president demolished the East Wing of the White House, and he’s building a ballroom with “donations” from private companies and individuals who have given him millions. But even on the most ambitious timeline, the ballroom won’t be completed by the time a White House visit by the 2025 World Series champions might take place.
Trump hasn’t announced a completion date for his ridiculous monstrosity, but the administration has said it will be done before his second term is up in Jan. 2029.
9) Trump didn’t call the Toronto Blue Jays un-American
Another fake post that was popping up here and there on social media specifically called out the Blue Jays.
“WE WILL BE INVESTIGATING THE UN AMERICAN BLUE JAYS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO STEAL OUR BELOVED WORLD SERIES,” the fake tweet reads. “THEY WILL DEFINITELY NOT BE INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE.”
Screenshot: X
At the end of the day, all of these fake tweets go viral because it’s impossible to tell which screeds from President Trump are authentic. Trump has always been off his rocker, but he’s gotten increasingly weird during his second term, posting some of the oddest things that a president has ever expressed in public.
As just one example, Trump posted an AI video of himself last month talking about “medbeds,” a bizarre conspiracy theory that claims there are real beds being hidden from the public that can heal all diseases. The video even includes a fake Trump touting these miracle cures and insisting they were going to be available soon to “restore every citizen to full health.”
In a world where the president is posting about medbeds—to say nothing of the Department of Homeland Security posting Nazi propaganda—it can be extremely difficult to tell what’s real. And that’s not going to change as long as the Trump regime remains in power. In fact, it’s likely to get much, much worse.
10) Trump didn’t announce 15-year car loans
An announcement from the White House went viral this year, claiming that President Donald Trump is working on making 15-year car loans available to all Americans. The announcement is fake. But it’s a joke based on something very real.
“As he continues to work hard to make the American Dream accessible to everyone, President Trump today has asked the Departments of Transportation and Commerce to make vehicle ownership for all a reality by introducing 15 year car loans! Secretaries Duffy and Lutnick are already working on it! Delivering for America!” the viral screenshot reads.
A fake announcement, made to look like it’s coming from the White House, about 15-year car loans. Screenshot: X
While the announcement has been circulating widely on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok, it’s not real.
Where did this announcement actually come from? It appears to have originated with a satire account on X called TheRealThelmaJohnson. The tweet included a joke, along with the photoshopped announcement, that reads: “If you want to pay 100 grand for a 2009 Chevy Equinox this is the way…”
And that joke gets close to what’s funny about a 15-year car loan. The longer the car loan, the more the borrower is ultimately paying for the car, thanks to interest payments. The original tweet from “Thelma Johnson” only has about 150,000 views, a very humble number for something that’s gone “viral.” That’s because it has been widely shared on other platforms (including X, though without attribution to the original creator) and people think it’s real.
The reason many people think it’s real is that President Trump actually proposed something just as ridiculous as a 15-year car loan recently. On Nov. 8, Trump posted a graphic to Truth Social comparing himself to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who helped popularize the 30-year mortgage during the 1930s. The graphic shows a photo of Trump with the words “50-year mortgage” underneath without further explanation.
Graphic posted to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account on Nov. 8, 2025, promoting the idea of a 50-year mortgage. Image: Truth Social
Politico reports that the graphic actually came from a man named Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte reportedly visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago with a 3×5 posterboard in hand. Roughly 10 minutes later, the graphic was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account, according to Politico. That apparently angered Trump’s aides, with Politico characterizing it as “bad politics and bad policy.”
The idea of the 30-year mortgage was that it allowed people to live in and “own” their homes, even if it took a significant portion of someone’s life to pay it off. At the end of the mortgage, the person would at least have ownership of a property, even if they paid much more than it was worth in the end. The idea of the 50-year mortgage takes this to the extreme, especially with the median age of first-time home buyers in the U.S. currently at 40. And the only people who would be taking out 50-year mortgages would be the people in the most precarious financial positions, which means they’d be most likely to default. Even if a borrower made good on their loan agreement, the prospect of them ever actually owning the property would be slim.
Trump was asked by Laura Ingraham on Fox News about the proposal, and he didn’t back down from the idea. “All it means is you pay less per month,” Trump said. “Pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.”
And all of this ridiculousness brings us to the idea of the 15-year car loan. It’s a joke, but plenty of high-profile X accounts seemed to think it was real, including Unusual Whales and Polymarket. When one account racked up 1 million views and faced skepticism from other users, she linked to a tweet from AF Post that she suggested was some proof the White House was considering it.
In reality, AF Post (America First Post) isn’t a real, credible news outlet. It’s affiliated with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and it posts fake garbage all the time. But AF Post has a blue checkmark, which anyone can buy for $8 from Elon Musk, and some people are under the illusion that it still carries some weight of “verification.”
The “Thelma Johnson” account often shares fake White House announcements, so the next time you see something like that, which sounds too good to be true, maybe check that specific account to see if they were the first one to post it. That’s what we do here at Gizmodo whenever we see a ridiculous tweet that reads “this post has been deleted.” There’s one particular prankster who likes to do that one, and we always check their account when something similar goes viral.
European Union regulators on Friday said it is fining Elon Musk’s social media platform X $140 million (120 million euros) for violating regulations aimed at protecting internet users in the trading bloc from digital abuses.
The European Commission said that X breached “transparency obligations” under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The fine represents the EU’s first move to sanction a company for violating the law since the law was enacted in 2022.
In a statement issued Friday, the commission accused X of using its ‘blue checkmark’ in a way that deceives users. Anyone can pay to get the verification, making it hard for users to judge the authenticity of the accounts they engage with on the social media platform, the EU said. This could expose users to scams and “other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” the commission noted.
The European Commission also took aim at X’s ads repository, which it said fails to meet accessibility requirements under the DSA. Internet platforms in the EU are required to provide a database of all the digital advertisements they have carried, with details such as who paid for them and the intended audience. That goal is to help researchers detect scams, fake ads and coordinated influence campaigns.
X has 60 days to tell the European Commission how it plans to address the group’s concerns.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr took issue with the fine and defended X. “Once again, Europe is fining a successful U.S. tech company for being a successful U.S. tech company,” he wrote on X Friday in a post shared by X owner Elon Musk.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The DSA requires platforms to remove “illegal content,” among other restrictions, with companies that fail to comply at risk of hefty fines. The law has been a thorn in the side of American tech companies and members of the Trump administration, who claim the sweeping rule violates free speech.
During a speech in Munich this February, Vice President J.D. Vance said the EU’s content moderation policies amount to “authoritarian censorship,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit think tank.
Considering this, in a recent announcement by Nikita Bier, head of product at X, the platform has introduced an update that allows users to see the country or region where an account is based.
In a couple hours, we’ll be rolling out About This Account globally, allowing you to see the country or region where an account is based.
Despite this, some users are in support of this added feature as it gives users belonging to countries where speech can land them in trouble an opportunity to put forward their thoughts.
Users have always considered Twitter as a platform that allows its users to put forward their voice, their thoughts, and their feelings. While this is important, sometimes bad actors might affect the integrity of a nation or region. Considering this, in a recent announcement by Nikita Bier, head of product at X, the platform has introduced an update that allows users to see the country or region where an account is based.
The Importance of This New Update
The update might seem minor to you, but it can be super useful when you are trying to find someone on ‘X’. Furthermore, X has also mentioned that users will be able to use privacy toggles, which will allow them to show the region of their origin rather than the exact country. This has been done keeping in mind the countries where speech may invite penalties for their users.
In a couple hours, we’ll be rolling out About This Account globally, allowing you to see the country or region where an account is based. This will be accessible by tapping the signup date on profiles.
This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town… pic.twitter.com/5d7cX21qGj
The following are the simple steps to find out the country or region of any account on X
1. Open the profile you want to know the origin of.
2. Tap on the joined date of the account
3. You will be able to see the country or region in the ‘Account based in’ section
After this, you will be able to see all the information about the account. This information will include the country or region in which the account is based, along with
The Public Opinion
Since the announcement of this update, many users have been discussing its aspects. Some are saying that it’s a welcome change, while some are thinking about whether it’s a threat to the privacy of the users. The privacy toggle feature has also been a talking point, as it is being considered a loophole that impersonators might misuse to hide their exact country. Despite this, some users are in support of this added feature as it gives users belonging to countries where speech can land them in trouble an opportunity to put forward their thoughts.
FAQs
Q. Can I purchase the Blue tick symbol on ‘X’?
Yes, the blue tick checkmark can be obtained through a paid subscription to ‘X Premium’
Q. I wanted to edit a post after publishing it. Can I do that?
Unfortunately, there isn’t any option to edit a post once you’ve published it, unless you have subscribed to ‘X Premium’. However, keep in mind that the edit window is limited to 1 hour. The edit history will also be visible to the viewers.
Wrapping Up
X’s new update seems useful, but it’s definitely not a flawless implementation yet. We should keep in mind the added privacy toggles as they are both necessary to safeguard people from certain regions and a loophole that can be misused. Let’s hope that the platform manages to polish the rough edges so that this can serve it’s intended purpose without any issues.
You may also like to read:
Have any questions related to our how-to guides, or anything in the world of technology? Check out our new GadgetsToUse AI Chatbotfor free, powered by ChatGPT.
They go by names like @TRUMP_ARMY— or @MAGANationX, and their verified accounts proudly display portraits of President Donald Trump, voter rallies and American flags. And they’re constantly posting about U.S. politics to their followers, sounding like diehard fans of the president.
But after a weekend update to the social media platform X, it’s now clear that the owners of these accounts, and many others, are located in regions such as South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Elon Musk’s X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts posting in support of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the United States — raising concerns about foreign influence on U.S. politics.
Researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation, identified several popular accounts — purportedly run by Americans interested in politics – that instead were based in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa.
The accounts were leading disseminators of some misleading and polarizing claims about U.S. politics, including ones that said Democrats bribed the moderators of a 2024 presidential debate.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced Saturday that the social media platform is rolling out an “About This Account” tool, which lets users see the country or region where an account is based. To find an account’s location, tap or click the signup date displayed on the profile.
“This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X,” Bier wrote.
In countries with punitive speech restrictions, a privacy tool on X lets account holders only show their region rather than a specific country. So instead of India, for instance, an account can say it is based in South Asia.
Bier said Sunday that after an update to the tool, it would 99.99% accurate, though this could not be independently verified. Accounts, for instance, can use a virtual private network, or VPN, to mask their true location. On some accounts, there’s a notice saying the location data may not be accurate, either because the account uses a VPN or because some internet providers use proxies automatically, without action by the user.
“Location data will always be something to use with caution,” said Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech and a former director of the International Fact-Checking Network. “Its usefulness probably peaks now that it was just exposed, and bad actors will adapt. Meta has had similar information for a while and no one would suggest that misinformation has been eliminated from Facebook because of it.”
Some of the accounts supported slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk as well as President Donald Trump’s children. Many of the accounts were adorned with U.S. flags or made comments suggesting they were American. An account called “@BarronTNews_,” for instance, is shown as being located in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU),” even though the display location on its profile says “Mar A Lago.” The account, which has more than 580,000 followers, posted on Tuesday that “This is a FAN account, 100 % independent, run by one guy who loves this country and supports President Trump with everything I’ve got.”
The location data for this X account with Charlie Kirk’s photo says it is based in a non-EU Eastern European country.
via X
NewsGuard also found evidence that some X users are spreading misinformation about the location feature itself, incorrectly accusing some accounts of being operated from abroad when they’re actually used by Americans. Investigators found several instances where one user created fake screenshots that appear to suggest an account was created overseas.
It’s not always clear what the motives of the accounts. While some may be state actors, it’s likely that many are financially motivated, posting commentary, memes and videos to draw engagement.
“For the most visible accounts unmasked this week, money is probably the main motivator,” Mantzarlis said. “That doesn’t mean that X — as documented extensively by prior work done by academic and nonprofit organizations that are being attacked and defunded — isn’t also a target for state actors.
Users were divided over the new ability to see an account’s location information, with some questioning whether it went too far.
“Isn’t this kind of an invasion of privacy?” One X user wrote. “No one needs to see this info.”
