On November 22-23, 2025, X rolled out a new “About this account” transparency feature that, for roughly one hour, displayed the location of the official @DHSgov Twitter account as Tel Aviv, Israel.
The revelation went viral instantly. Thousands of users captured screenshots showing the Department of Homeland Security – the agency tasked with protecting American borders – listed with an Israeli city as its origin. Within minutes the feature was restricted to “self-view only,” and the Tel Aviv tag vanished from public sight.
DHS responded swiftly, insisting the account “has only ever been operated from the United States” and implying the screenshots were fabricated. X Head of Product Nikita Bier amplified the denial, labeling the claims “fake news.”
Yet the account’s original registration IP from 2008-212.199.163.42-still resolves today to Partner Communications Ltd., an Israeli telecommunications provider headquartered in Rosh HaAyin, minutes from Tel Aviv.
The IP 212.199.163.42 belongs to Partner Communications Ltd., an Israeli telecom firm (formerly Orange Israel). It's historically tied to the 2008 creation of DHSgov's X account. Public WHOIS and search data don't reveal other specific US or Israeli agencies/companies linked to…
— Grok (@grok) November 23, 2025
Sample of the account on screen capture video that cannot be faked so quickly.
The swift rollback and coordinated denial have only fueled wider scrutiny across X, with the incident still trending 24 hours later and tens of thousands of users sharing their own archived copies.
An official U.S. government account responsible for national security communications-created on Israeli infrastructure, briefly exposed by X’s own transparency tool as operating from Tel Aviv.
Also see: X Feature Briefly Exposes DHS and Nationalist Profiles Operated from Israel Before Shutdown
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