Why some Canadian companies, political parties appear to be 'based' in the U.S. on X

Some Canadian companies and political parties appear to be “based” in the United States on X, even though they are Canadian. The information appeared on X accounts after the platform launched a new feature over the weekend, intended to show users where in the world an account is located.

It is supposed to help “users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X,” according to X head of product Nikita Bier ; however, the About This Account feature has also led to some confusion.

“If any data is incorrect, it will be updated periodically based on best available information. This happens on a delayed and randomized schedule to preserve privacy,” Bier said .

After the feature was launched, users on X started pointing out that the accounts for the Liberal Party and the NDP are listed as “based in United States.” Canadian companies like Tim Hortons and Lululemon, to name a few, are also listed as “based in the United States.”

However, the Liberal Party’s spokesperson Matteo Rossi confirmed to National Post in an emailed statement that all of its social accounts “are of course run from Canada.” Similarly, NDP spokesperson Aaron Zerfas said the party’s account on X was “created and is maintained in Canada.”

A spokesperson for Tim Hortons said its X account is run from Toronto, Ont. Lululemon did not immediately respond to National Post in time for publication.

Here’s what to know about X’s new location feature and some accounts’ misleading locations.

Although a social media account might be “based” in the U.S., it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was set up abroad or is being run outside of Canada, Courtney Gibson told National Post. Gibson is a computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto and the the Chief Technology Officer at medical company MedixSafe.

Each device that connects to the internet has a unique identifying number assigned to it, called an IP address . There are several reasons why an IP address might not accurately display a location, said Gibson.

“There are a whole bunch of things that can really frustrate people’s attempt to know where traffic is coming from,” including an address being misidentified or a server being moved temporarily. IP addresses “move around” and can make it hard to pinpoint a physical location.

Gibson likened it to area codes and phone numbers.

“It used to be that 416 numbers were all Toronto phone numbers, and for a combination of convenience and competition, people now can move their phone numbers,” he said.

“I know people with 416 phone numbers who now live in Ottawa or Vancouver or Montreal, and they have taken their phone number with them as they’ve moved. The area code no longer really corresponds to geography. And the same thing happens with computer addresses.”

He said there are a lot of components in place to ensure the internet runs smoothly from a business perspective, but that can mean less clarity for internet users who want more information.

Another scenario that could lead to a Canadian organization appearing to be based in the U.S. could be if an internet service provider assigns blocks of IP addresses to customers.

If some addresses are not in use, the provider can sell them. It’s possible that the address used when a customer subscribed to a social media platform, such as X, belonged to the Canadian provider at the time, but was then sold to another provider in the United States, said Gibson.

“It may now be owned by a different organization, reported in a different location,” said Gibson. “It can be really hard to tell.”

Gibson said he would be surprised if such accounts are really being run through a “physical server sitting in a room somewhere” in the United States.

“It’s far more likely that they are running it from (Amazon Web Services) or a Microsoft Azure service somewhere and that it is simply being routed,” he said.

“To the same extent, I could send you a package by FedEx, and if I was sending it from Saskatchewan to Toronto, it probably will travel through the United States at some point, just because that’s a more direct route. It doesn’t mean that the sender isn’t Canadian, or the recipient isn’t Canadian. It just happened to travel through some roadway that crossed the border.”

He added: “The internet was originally built without a lot of geography in mind.”

The Canadian companies and political parties that appear to be “based” in the U.S. on X include a warning from the platform.

It says: “One of our partners has indicated that this account may have used a proxy — such as a VPN, which may change the country or region that is displayed on their profile. This data may not be accurate. Some internet providers may use proxies automatically without action by the user.”

Much of the information online is automatically trusted, said Gibson, despite there being “no authority anywhere to validate” it. That includes the location of IP addresses.

“I think it’s a matter of understanding what you can trust. So many of the protocols that we rely on, on the internet, were written in the days when it was an academic network, back in the 1980s,” said Gibson.

“There are some services that will point you to the organization that is plugged into the internet and hosting those addresses, and that may help lead you to where it is. But again, the source of the website or the source of the data may be a customer of theirs, as opposed to the company themselves. It’s complicated, and it lets the internet function, but it also can be abused by people who are trying to hide.”

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