According to TechRadar, X’s Head of Product Mikita Bier announced plans to display more information about users including their country of origin, with VPN users getting a special warning that their location “may not be accurate.” The feature is expected to roll out as early as November 18, 2025, and while it won’t block VPN usage, it will publicly flag accounts using privacy tools. The move is specifically aimed at fighting troll accounts, but has already drawn sharp criticism from privacy advocates and companies like Proton VPN. NetBlocks Director of Research Isik Mater immediately called out the potential danger to activists and journalists who rely on VPNs for safety in repressive environments.
The real problem with outing VPN users
Here’s the thing about this VPN warning system – it fundamentally misunderstands why people use these tools in the first place. Sure, some people might use VPNs to create fake accounts or evade regional restrictions. But for many others, VPNs are literal lifesavers. Journalists in authoritarian countries, activists facing government surveillance, abuse victims hiding from stalkers – these aren’t hypothetical scenarios. They’re real people who could face real consequences if their privacy tools are publicly outed.
And let’s be honest – the troll problem on X isn’t going to be solved by flagging VPN users. Determined bad actors have way more sophisticated methods at their disposal than just firing up a consumer VPN service. This feels like security theater that creates more problems than it solves.
How will they even detect this?
The implementation details are still pretty murky, which is concerning in itself. Proton VPN’s General Manager David Peterson noted that X might be planning to use app-store region rather than IP addresses to determine location. That approach has its own set of problems though. What happens when someone travels internationally but keeps their original app store? Or when someone legitimately needs to appear in a different region for safety reasons?
Peterson raised a great point about jurisdiction confusion too. If the system relies on app-store regions, users could accidentally get subjected to the wrong country’s content rules or age restrictions. Basically, we’re looking at a potential mess where the cure might be worse than the disease.
This isn’t happening in a vacuum
Look, X has been pushing harder into regional compliance and content restrictions lately. Just look at their recent moves around country-specific rules and the whole verification system overhaul. This VPN detection feels like part of that broader trend toward geofencing and regional control.
But there’s a fundamental tension here between platform safety and user privacy. When you start publicly outing people’s privacy tools, you’re making value judgments about who “deserves” privacy and who doesn’t. And let’s be real – platforms don’t have the best track record of getting those judgment calls right.
Where does this leave users?
For now, it’s a waiting game. The feature isn’t scheduled until late 2025, and as Bier’s tweets show, the details are still evolving. But the immediate backlash from privacy experts like Isik Mater suggests this could become a major flashpoint.
Will X back down? Will they refine the approach? Or will they push forward and risk driving away privacy-conscious users? One thing’s for sure – if you care about online privacy, this is a development worth watching closely. You can follow more coverage through TechRadar’s Google News feed as this story develops.
