X to Notify Users When Governments Force Limits on Their Posts
X will now tell users when their posts are downranked or withheld because the company complied with local laws, expanding its “Under the Hood” transparency tool.
The update also will highlight downranking of users’ posts that results from government-required content filtering. Previously, information about how an X user’s account or posts were being labeled and downranked was not available to end users. That lack of visibility led many users to accuse the company, formerly known as Twitter, of shadowbanning them, the report said.
Most companies that disclose data about government requests do so in aggregate through transparency reports, not at the level of individual accounts or posts. X began to change that in August, when it rolled out its transparency tool to provide more information about moderation decisions. Through the “Under the Hood” option in the app settings, anyone who has posted at least 10 times during the month can download aggregate statistics as a JSON file. Non-technical users can place the file into any AI chatbot to have it explained.
X said the same process will now show whether an account or its posts have had visibility limited because the company is complying with local laws. The file will also include which posts were withheld in a country following a legal demand and which country made the request. Governments cite a range of reasons for such demands, including laws against hate speech, terrorism-related content, and election rules. Critics, including free-expression groups, say some countries also use these laws to suppress political dissent.
The update follows other transparency-related efforts at X. They include open-sourcing the “For You” algorithm, which selects posts for users’ main feed, and expanding efforts to open source parts of its codebase. That work added more detail about model configuration, filtering, and core ranking system details. As a result, the code now includes the parameters used to weight different signals, information that is key to understanding which posts are actually displayed. At the time of the open-sourcing effort, X vice president of product Keith Coleman said it was “the kind of thing that I think people will be fairly shocked that we are releasing.”