X’s great unmasking of account location is a monumental step toward online transparency. And it reminds us that in a borderless online world, digital borders matter.

Our proposal for digital borders at The Washington Post: https://t.co/7wkdYUGsvU with @zachschapira

11/ Digital borders won’t solve everything, but they will keep some of the worst fraud out of our feeds, and restore trust in our civic discourse.

10/ None of this restricts speech. It’s about adding transparency - the digital equivalent of nutrition labels. Users simply get more context to make informed decisions.

9/ Show the geographic breakdown of engagement on posts and trending topics.    For viral stories, show which countries drive likes and shares.  Is a U.S. story trending based on American or foreign engagement? Americans debating local issues deserve this clarity.

8/ Prioritize authentic domestic content. Recommendation algorithms should prioritize real domestic voices and boost content based on genuine local engagement.  Local relevance matters, especially when discussing issues that affect our local communities.

7/ Let users customize their feeds by region. Some want a global feed, others want a domestic one. Users should be able to filter or limit content based on where it’s coming from.

6/ Expand on geographic transparency. Platforms could put country labels front and center on profiles and even posts – no need to click multiple times to see them. If VPNs obscure location, flag that uncertainty as well.

5/ It’s a start, but we need to do more to mitigate foreign influence in domestic matters. Here are some ideas platforms like X can explore to get this right: (@elonmusk @nikitabier)

4/ Country labels on X are a major shift. They give users crucial context: Is this a firsthand local account or commentary from thousands of miles away? That “Ivanka Trump News” account with 1M followers hits differently once you learn it’s posting from Nigeria.

3/ All they need is an account that looks, sounds, and behaves like a voter in Michigan, New York or Texas to infiltrate the digital border and influence domestic views. These accounts strike at major domestic issues from assassinations, to mayoral elections, to foreign policy.

2/ The borderless internet has unlocked huge benefits- from open markets to a global town square. But as politics moves online, ignoring geography is dangerous.  It allows foreign actors to pose as Americans and stoke internal conflict.

🚨X just pulled back the digital curtain. Their “About this account” tool has exposed countless foreign accounts posing as American influencers and raising the temperature on domestic issues. This highlights the need for more online transparency and digital borders. 🧵Thread

Important Op Ed by @seanrad in today’s @washingtonpost. The internet made the world smaller and that’s mostly great, but we have to mitigate foreign influence in domestic matters before it’s too late.

A proposal for digital borders, with @seanrad 🧵

Our proposal for digital borders is now live at The Washington Post: https://t.co/TCOXoMiNZX with @zachschapira

Be open and honest with people, even if you risk losing them as a friend. Honesty is a great filter… brings you closer to the people who love you and filters out the ones who only pretend to love you.

Thank you @HarryStebbings

I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump. Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I

The greatest thing we can ever experience is a loving relationship. There is no greater gift. It should always come first. In the end, our relationships are all we have and all that matters.