In this episode of Based Camp, Malcolm and Simone Collins dive deep into the recent X (Twitter) region doxxing controversy and explore the much bigger story behind how the internet—and social media algorithms—are being transformed by AI. We break down the real impact of location leaks on X, reveal how many popular accounts turned out to be fakes, and discuss why this might be the last time we see a leak like this. But that’s just the beginning: we examine how AI-generated content, comments, and even recommended video topics are shaping what we see online, and why it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s not. From the rise of AI-driven YouTube suggestions to the surprising results of studies on people’s ability to distinguish between human and AI-created art, music, and writing, we ask: what does authenticity mean in a world where algorithms and artificial intelligence dominate? We also discuss the future of online communities, the value of real human connection, and why being “imperfect” might soon be a badge of authenticity. Plus, hear our thoughts on the cultural and psychological shifts happening as AI becomes more integrated into our daily digital lives. For reference, here is a screenshot showing YouTube’s AI-generated episode suggestions (when you click through, you get full on outlines!): Episode Transcript: Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone. I’m excited to be here with you today. Today we will actually not be deeply covering the Twitter thing. We will be briefly covering it, but I will be going over a much deeper and much bigger story about how the internet works than you guys are not hearing, because that’s what we always do on this channel.I’ll see something, do the rounds, and I’m like, how can I do a take on this that brings in information and data. People just aren’t getting, if they’re watching the regular YouTuber lineup. Right. I will note the one thing that I found very depressing in the regular YouTuber lineup of the covering, so if you don’t know what I’m talking about, the location leaks on X and they had actually told everyone they were gonna do this like months ago. Made everyone news to me. Yeah, location, where the account was. And where the account, like where the user was when they created the account. Public. Simone Collins: Yeah. So like, if you click on our account, for example, it says that the account was created in 2008 in the United States and that we have a United States based Android app. So [00:01:00] presumably if we created the account in Japan, it would say that. And so, you know, the year established, you know, the region established and you know, the app downloaded. Malcolm Collins: And unsurprisingly, a ton of accounts, a ton of very popular accounts turned out to be obviously frauds. You know, they were like, that Simone Collins: surprises me. You say Malcolm Collins: it’s unsurprising. That’s, I think that’s shocking. What are some fun ones ? Like Republicans against Trump, which had almost a million followers, was an Austrian account Austrian. Yeah defiant ls, which was a right-leaning anti-left hypocrisy, pro-con conservative account was an Indian Macedonian account. Jansen Hickle, which is interesting ‘cause it’s a real person with 3.6 million followers who pretended to be an American was in Burkina Faso. The Trump army was an Indian account, for example. Oh my goodness. Over half a million followers. Amazing. And everybody, what I’ve hated about the coverage of this is everybody’s just going [00:02:00] like, oh, look at the other side. They were heavily astro turfed. And so I was like, first of all, what’s the actual breakdown? It’s about 60. About 60% of the accounts that were called out were Republican accounts, and about 40% were Democratic leaning accounts. If you’re wondering why I love the democratic accounts, where it’s a lot of people pretending to be zens and like how horrible their lives are, and most of them. But anyway, the, the reason why it would trend slightly more Republican is because republicans would care more that you are from their country, right? Like you can be a Democratic influencer and from Africa or something, right? That’s not going to in, in qual unqualify you, but as a Republican that could unqualify you. So that’s why it leans slightly that way. I was really disappointed to see how far off the rail, short fat of taco. Fallen that his entire video was just about how there was a lot of this on the right and he didn’t really go into it in the left that much. No. About equal numbers. But anyway, anyway what is interesting, what is interesting is that this might be the last [00:03:00] time we get a leak like this, and I’ll explain why. Like even the concept of pseudonymity may not make sense in the future. What, and I’ll be diving into data that was shared by, and I found this absolutely fascinating. Romanian tv e who is a, a Romanian podcaster, a conservative politics podcaster who PO podcast is like a troll avatar t
