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Happy Tuesday. Netflix is hiring a sports personality, Spotify is planning to raise prices, and Universal is plotting some "Wicked" sequels. But first...

X reveals some hard truths

The new account location label on Elon Musk's X has captured a lot of attention in the past few days. The feature, no matter how imperfect, has exposed people from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Argentina and India apparently posing as Americans and pushing people's buttons.

It says something unseemly about the never-ending supply of MAGA memes and social justice screeds. But we have to reckon with the demand side of this equation. 

Why are people (surely not you personally, but certainly lots of your neighbors!) so quick to believe @NumberOnePatriot or @SocialistsUnite and share what they say? Why let bad faith actors — who may live thousands of miles away — fool us while padding their own pockets?

In school, we're taught to consider the source. But once we're allegedly grown up, we all too often forget that lesson. And even when we remember, it can be almost impossible to discern who's who on the internet. This X feature is a small step in a better direction. 

How this all connects to trust

Yesterday, Business Insider's Peter Kafka argued that "the real surprise" in the unmasking of high-profile X accounts "isn't where these accounts are posting from — it's that anyone's still surprised."

Like Kafka, I've been writing about this topic for the better part of a decade, so I sympathize with his argument. But any day there's growing awareness of this problem is a good day!

Addressing the demand side can be awkward, as you risk sounding like a jerk. "Why are you so gullible?" is not a constructive way to start a conversation. But there are reasons why many of the foreign accounts posing as Americans are promoting President Trump and pushing right-wing talking points.

"If you are a foreign grifter looking for a US customer base," the MAGA right "has been the broadest and most consistent target," researcher Renee DiResta wrote, citing "study after study" from the past decade.

DiResta emphasized that she wasn't making a "moral judgment," she was merely describing the marketplace. The MAGA right, she wrote, is "a niche where people are willing to follow a random, anonymous account and treat it as a trusted voice on everything from elections to vaccines to border security — boosting its content to their friends as well." Lack of trust in everything else is the key.

In some cases, as Jared Holt pointed out, users "don't even care if this is actually true," because they want to believe the worst about perceived adversaries. This is often true IRL, too, but the internet, with its lack of face-to-face engagement, only makes it worse.

This is why it's so important to have politicians like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaking out about social algorithms that maximize conflict. Check out Cox's recent interview with McKay Coppins about this very topic...