Three years after abandoning blue checkmarks of old, X is now seeking to recreate the trust signals it tore down. The company is trying a broadened “About” section that displays an account’s history and origin, in hopes users can make up their own minds about whether a profile is real without needing to know what badge someone earned.
It’s pragmatic and implicitly confessional: It just got harder to judge identity on X, once paid verification replaced the old, vetting-intense system. The new signals aren’t going to recover all that’s been lost overnight, but they can help identify impersonation and low-grade spam just a little bit more easily.
X Now Plays Profile History To Signal Authenticity
This and other early iterations of the updated profile “About” section—rolling out first on accounts for employees—show a user’s home country, how many times they’ve previously changed their username, and the app store where they downloaded X (and more).
The company describes this as context, not a new badge: just something that provides readers with information on who is behind some of the posts they are reading.
X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, has framed the feature as an effort to make authenticity “readable in one second.” The idea is that knowing where an account is registered and how many times it’s been rebranded can uncover patterns shared by most fakers and spam farms, all while providing real users with a portable trail of credibility.
A Fix for a Problem That X Brought to Users
The service’s prior checkmark symbolized identity verification for public figures, politicians and well-known institutions. It was flawed and opaque, but amid breaking news and emergencies it provided a quick, reliable signal that the account you were reading was the account.
It escalated when X got rid of legacy checks and opened blue badges to anyone who would pay a subscription. The low barrier attracted chaos: high-profile impersonations exploded, including a fake brand account announcing “free insulin,” a post that went viral and spooked investors. More recently, X said it had thwarted 1.7 million bots doing reply spam—an example of how automated accounts have gamed the new incentives.
Borrowing From Rivals With Privacy Caveats
In other words, X is following a path that others have already blazed. For years, Instagram’s “About This Account” displayed join dates, countries, prior usernames, shared followers and active advertisements. These details don’t prove an identity, but they create a dossier that can help discern fakes without requiring a corporate stamp.
Version X raises new privacy and security concerns. The publication of a country of origin can be dangerous for some dissidents, journalists or oppressed users. Bier has said he understands those concerns, and that the company might replace it with a more general region in parts of Europe and provide privacy controls as well as flag when people have opted out. Doing so will be crucial in markets regulated by the EU’s Digital Services Act, which pressures large platforms to mitigate systemic risks without trampling fundamental rights.
Can Labels From History Help Restore Trust?
Account metadata is a helpful nudge, but it should not stand in for verification. You can obfuscate your location, app store sources are easily explained and username churn is only one heuristic. The best fixes would combine transparency with sturdy identity checks for high-impact accounts, clearer labels for government and media entities and uniform enforcement against coordinated inauthentic behavior.
But the addition of further context can dampen lower-effort scams. Municipal agencies with even name histories and institutional footprints appear different from a week-old handle that has bounced across identities. The crucial part will be consistency: These signals need to be visible, standardized and incorruptible; not yet another opt-in feature that bad actors can simply work around.
What To Watch Next As X Tests New Profile Signals
The ultimate effect of the test will depend on scope and defaults. If account history is enabled by default for verified and high-reach accounts, it could also change norms. If it’s an opt-in, easy-to-hide option, well, it risks being yet another empty field. Look for whether X pairs these changes with stronger labeling on public officials, researcher access to monitor impersonation trends and regular transparency reports that track progress against bots and spam.
X didn’t break trust in a day, and it won’t restore it with one profile panel. But recognizing that users might need more than a purchasable badge—and providing richer context for them to evaluate what they see—is one small necessary step toward a cleaner, more credible feed.
