About This Account reveals the scale of X’s foreign troll problem
It’s long been known that X (and Twitter before it) is a major venue for foreign influence campaigns to meddle in American politics. Much of the focus has been on Russian troll farms, which the US government has targeted on several occasions. But the launch of X’s About This Account feature may have revealed the scope and geographical breadth of its foreign troll problem.
Almost immediately after the feature launched, people started noticing that many rage-bait accounts focused on US politics appeared to be based outside of the US. Profiles with names like ULTRAMAGA🇺🇸TRUMP🇺🇸2028 were revealed to be based in Nigeria. A verified account posing as border czar Tom Homan was traced to Eastern Europe. And America_First0? Apparently from Bangladesh. An entire network of “Trump-supporting independent women” claiming to be from America was really located in Thailand.
Threads quickly started growing, collecting all the pro-MAGA trolls that claimed to be American, but were really foreign actors from every corner of the globe. Some right-wing personalities were quick to jump on evidence that many left-wing X users were also not who they claimed to be. In no time at all, X was flooded with people calling out the seemingly endless list of fake and troll accounts focused on stoking political anger.
Shortly after the feature launched, X removed information about where accounts were created. And disclaimers were placed on locations for where accounts were based, noting that travel, VPNs, and proxies could lead to inaccurate data. This is certainly true for some accounts, however, it’s extremely unlikely to be true for even a majority of those being called out.
Some of these troll accounts are likely state-sponsored influence campaigns. Foreign entities like Russia and China have a vested interest in sowing chaos in the American political system. But it’s also likely that many are driven by monetary gain. While earnings from monetization on X can be paltry by Western standards, it can be life-changing in developing nations.
Some of the best Nintendo Switch games are up to $30 off for Black Friday
Nintendo has made some of the most iconic video games of all time, but building a library of the standouts can quickly become expensive, especially given that many titles don’t often go on sale at a significant discount. The good news is that Nintendo is already running a holiday sale in the run-up to Black Friday, allowing you to save on Nintendo Switch games, amiibo, and accessories through November 28th.
The biggest news is that Nintendo and select retailers are offering some of the Switch’s best games — including Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom — for as little as $29.99, which amounts to a healthy $30 discount. In some cases, these games are at their lowest price ever, and we don’t expect any of them to be this heavily discounted again until “MAR10 Day” rolls around next year.
Typically, Nintendo offers a discount on a Switch bundle that includes a digital copy of Mario Kart: 8 Deluxe or some other first-party title, but that doesn’t seem to be happening this year. The company has openly admitted that it’s shifting its focus to the Switch 2 — which isn’t on sale and isn’t expected to be anytime soon — and recently raised the price of the original Switch due to President Trump’s tariff policy.
Sadly, no Switch 2 games are part of the promo; however, you can play the discounted OG Switch titles on Nintendo’s latest console. Plus, if you are looking for deals related to the Switch 2, Woot is still running a video game promo through the end of today, November 23rd, giving you a chance to save on newer releases like Mario Kart World and the Switch 2 Edition of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey remains one of the crowning achievements of the original Switch thanks to its tight platforming, ingenious level design, and a game mechanic that lets you control certain enemies and parts of the environment. There are still bosses to battle and coins to collect, but Odyssey feels like a breath of fresh air. Read our review.
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Princess Peach: Showtime!
Princess Peach: Showtime! is the first Nintendo game to star the Mushroom Kingdom royal in nearly 20 years, and it’s a welcome return to form. Peach finds herself having to fight, puzzle, and platform her way through different sets in a community theater. She inhabits a different role — with different abilities — in each stage, which keeps the game engaging. Read our review.
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Donkey Kong Country Returns HD
Donkey Kong Country HD is the definitive version of the tough-as-nails platformer, which initially launched on the Wii in 2016. Don’t let the game’s cartoonish art, bopping soundtrack, and side-scrolling gameplay fool you, though; it will test your skills. That said, it’s still a blast to work your way through the game’s tougher sections, which require both precision and patience. Read our review.
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The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Echoes of Wisdom finally lets you play as Nintendo’s titular heroine. The game’s basic premise revolves around trying to save the world using the fabled Tri Rod, an item that allows you to replicate the spirits of items and enemies you encounter along the way. The game mixes the top-down perspective of 2D Zelda games with gameplay from the series’ newer, open-world 3D entries. Read our review.
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Luigi’s Mansion 3
Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the series’s most ambitious title, even though it retains the Luigi-as-a-Ghostbuster gameplay the series has employed since 2001. It takes place in a haunted hotel overrun with ghosts. To deal with them, you’ll need the help of Gooigi, a doppelgänger made of goop that can help you explore every nook and cranny. The game’s slapstick humor outweighs any spookiness. Read our review.
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Nintendo Switch Sports
Nintendo Switch Sports didn’t change the world the way Wii Sports did in 2006, but it remains a fun party game. You can choose from six sports, including tennis and bowling, and use a single Switch Joy-Con as a motion controller. There’s an element of “swing the controller and hope the correct action happens on screen,” but it’s still a good time to play with friends. Read our review.
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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is generally regarded as the best Mario RPG, and the Switch remake is well worth revisiting. Mario has more paper-like abilities than he did in the original Paper Mario game (including the option to turn into a paper airplane), and Nintendo didn’t feel the need to shake up the battle system or other gameplay elements like they did in subsequent entries.
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Splatoon 3
Splatoon 3 is the latest entry in Nintendo’s paint-laden shooter franchise, and the hook this time around is a deeper single-player mode. You’ll assume the role of an undercover agent fighting through a city using a mix of shooting and platforming. As you progress, you’ll begin to find artifacts of the pre-apocalypse that shine a light on what happened in the Splatoon universe. Read our review.
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Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is another HD remake of a Wii game, but it introduces additional abilities, mini games, and an entirely new section that’s available once you complete the original story. The game doesn’t shake up the Kirby formula, but it’s still a fun game to play — especially with friends, as it supports four-player local co-op.
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Tulin amiibo
Tulin is a Rito and the Sage of Wind from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. His amiibo will grant random items in both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its aforementioned sequel.
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Yunobo amiibo
Yunobo is a Goron and the Sage of Fire from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Using his amiibo will drop random items in both that game and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
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Riju amiibo
Riju is a Gerudo and the Sage of Lightning from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Using her amiibo will drop random items in both that game and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
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Sidon amiibo
Sidon is a Zora and the Sage of Water from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Using his amiibo will drop random items in both that game and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
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Jamie amiibo
Jamie is a character in Street Fighter 6, and using his amiibo lets you save his outfit, color, and your own custom button settings. The amiibo also unlocks in-game rewards, including music and wallpaper.
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Kimberly amiibo
Kimberly is a character in Street Fighter 6, and using her amiibo lets you save her outfit, color, and your own custom button settings. The amiibo also unlocks in-game rewards, including music and wallpaper.
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Luke amiibo
Luke is a character in Street Fighter 6 who made his series debut in Street Fighter V: Champion Edition. Using his amiibo lets you save his outfit, color, and your own custom button settings in Street Fighter 6. The amiibo also unlocks in-game rewards, including music and wallpaper.
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X’s messy About This Account rollout has caused utter chaos
Yesterday X started rolling out a new About This Account feature, which included what country the account was created from and what country the account is “based” in (which is different from “connected via”). Head of product at X, Nikita Bier, was quick to say that there were “a few rough edges,” but promised they’d be resolved by Tuesday.
There have definitely been complaints about inaccuracies. The company even ended up removing information about where an account was created, saying the data “was not 100 percent,” especially for older accounts.
The reaction from users on X was, of course, totally level-headed. They immediately recognized that the data was flawed and definitely didn’t spend the last 24 hours trying to score political points.
Just kidding.
People on X have done almost nothing but shout that accounts they disagree with are actually foreign operatives. Even users who have publicly complained that the information on their own profile was inaccurate continued on to make bad-faith posts about how their political opponents were running a foreign psyop.
The inaccurate data could have several causes. People who travel, or outlets with staff scattered around the globe, might appear to be “based” somewhere other than where they actually are, at least temporarily. If someone uses a VPN, it could affect where X shows their location. Some of it could just be old IP addresses. At the time of this writing, Hank Green’s account is listed as being based in Japan, MusicTech (a sister publication to the UK’s NME) is showing as based in the US, and AVID (Massachusetts-based maker of ProTools) is listed as being in Spain.
Of course, there is also a kernel of truth to some of this. Many political rage-bait accounts are not based in the US. We’ve long known that troll farms have been waging a foreign influence campaign on American politics. But some of it is also a financial scheme. Monetization on X is largely driven by engagement, and nothing gets people engaged like riling them up about politics.
Sony’s last-gen XM4 headphones are over 50 percent off for Black Friday
More than five years after making their debut, Sony’s WH-1000XM4 remain an excellent pair of noise-canceling headphones. And right now, Best Buy is offering a doorbuster deal that drops them to just $159.99 ($190 off) for a limited time, which is the lowest price we’ve seen this year. If you prefer the latest tech, you can also snag the newer XM6 for about $398 ($60 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
Sony WH-1000XM4
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We once considered the XM4 to be the best headphones you could buy. We replaced them with the XM5, followed by the XM6 three years later, but the last-last-gen model is still a solid pick in 2025. The XM4 offer great sound quality, up to 30 hours of battery life, and terrific active noise cancellation, even if the ANC can’t quite compete with Sony’s newer models. They support multipoint connectivity, allowing you to pair them with two devices simultaneously, along with great voice call performance. They also feature a handy Speak to Chat feature, which can automatically pause your audio when you start speaking.
Additionally, the XM4 support wear detection, meaning they will automatically pause whatever is playing when you remove them from your head and resume playback when you put them back on. And unlike the last-gen XM5, the comfortable headphones fold when not in use, making it relatively easy to slide them into your bag.
As for what you miss out on by opting for the XM4 over the XM6, Sony’s latest model offers improved sound quality, more powerful ANC, and even clearer voice calls. You can also charge the XM6 while listening to them, though you’ll need to juggle two cables — a USB-C and a 3.5mm — since they don’t support audio over USB-C.
Read our full WH-1000XM4 review.
Vine walked so TikTok could run
What are thooooose? Well, they're my Vines, the six-second videos that helped mint a generation of famous comedians and also kicked off the era of endlessly looping vertical video that has consumed us all ever since. If you weren't there at the time, most Vines might seem utterly nonsensical. But if you were on the internet when Vine burned brightest - a much briefer moment than you might remember - you probably still find yourself saying "look at all those chickens" more often than you should.
For this episode of Version History, we tell the story of Vine from beginning to end. It takes longer than six seconds… but not that much longer. …
Apple TV wants to go big
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on streaming competition, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
In 2022, Apple won an Oscar. The company behind the Mac and iPhone made a splash by winning Best Picture with the indie darling CODA, a remake of a French-Belgian film about the only hearing member of a family with a struggling fishing business. It was created with a modest budget reported around $10 million, and yet despite its relatively humble beginnings, for a time the movie was …
The app that will instantly improve your Windows PC
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 106, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, Happy Thanksgiving Week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I've been reading about prediction markets and Hilary Duff and Matt Belloni and yeast, clearing space for a Steam Machine, playing News Tower thanks to Stephen Totilo's recommendation, checking to make sure I remember all the Wicked lyrics (I do, don't worry) before seeing For Good, giving up on my fantasy football team, and recording season two of Version History. It's a fun one.
I also have for you a ne …
Shocker: Elon Musk spends a lot of time on X posting bad political takes
NBC News's David Ingram analyzed a month's worth of Elon Musk's X posts (our condolences). While what he was able to glean wasn't too surprising, it was still interesting to see the numbers all laid out. Between September 17th and October 17th, he posted 1,716 times, averaging a little over 55 posts a day. 49 percent of those were about politics, usually fringe. He seems particularly hung up on the race of people on TV and in movies, including going after child actors.
Other things Elon likes to talk about? Crime, Tesla - oh, and of course, himself. Over the 30 days, Elon posted about himself 109 times. He often even reposts his own stan ac …
Sony’s entire DualSense lineup is $20 off, including the limited edition models
Black Friday isn’t here quite yet, but that hasn’t stopped Sony from kicking off an excellent holiday promo, which runs through December 18th. The ongoing sale spans everything from PlayStation 5 consoles to Sony’s latest accessories — including Sony’s standard DualSense Wireless Controller, which is now matching its all-time low of $54.99 ($20 off) in multiple colors at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
Although the aforementioned deal price applies to Sony’s base models — including the go-to black and white variants — you can also pick up limited edition models inspired by Astro Bot (Walmart / Best Buy), God of War (Amazon / Walmart), and Ghost of Yōtei (Walmart / Best Buy) for around $64 (also $20 off). The controllers start at a higher price than the vanilla models, but recognize that you’re still getting them for $10 less than a regular DualSense normally costs.
Sony DualSense Wireless Controller
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Astro Bot “Joyful” DualSense Wireless Controller
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The DualSense will look familiar to longtime PlayStation fans, but it has significant technical features that set it apart from Sony’s earlier DualShock gamepads. A good example is the wireless controller’s haptic vibrations, which can make gameplay feel more immersive. Feeling a slight rumble on alternating sides of the controller as a character walks through sand is an example of what’s possible. The triggers have variable tension, too, which, in some games, requires you to push down with more force during certain sequences. It’s a terrific feature, and something we wish more developers would adopt.
As for table-stakes features, the DualSense features some nice textured grips and a built-in microphone, which lets you chat with other players online without a headset. You also have the option to plug a wired headset (or headphones) into the controller’s 3.5mm audio jack. It charges via USB-C — no surprise there — and can last up to eight hours or so, which should be enough to get you through most gaming sessions. It isn’t compatible with other consoles, but you can use it with a Mac or PC via Bluetooth or by plugging in with a USB-C cable.
Read our full DualSense Wireless Controller review.
Spotify simplifies importing playlists from other streaming services
In August, Apple Music launched a tool for importing playlists from other streaming services. The bruhahah over Daniel Ek’s war profiteering was in full swing, and artists were starting to flee. The two things may have been unrelated, but the timing was certainly fortuitous. Now Spotify is launching its own playlist transfer tool, in hopes of winning over some defectors from other platforms.
The feature isn’t something brand-new, built from the ground up. Instead, it’s a direct integration with TuneMyMusic, which lets you shuttle playlists between services like Tidal, YouTube Music, Qobuz, Beatport, and even Napster. Of course, TuneMyMusic is just one of several services that offer the same ability, including Soundiiz and SongShift, which powers Apple Music’s import feature.
While you could go straight to these third parties to move playlists between services, often, there are limits on how many playlists and how long they can be at the free tier. Going directly through Spotify and Apple gets you the full premium, unlimited transfer experience, albeit in one direction only. The ability to transfer your playlists from directly within the Spotify mobile app is rolling out now globally.