X is giving users more insight into one of the biggest mysteries surrounding content visibility on the platform. The company has announced that users will now be able to see when their posts or accounts have been made less visible because X was required to comply with local laws.
The update expands X’s existing “Under the Hood” transparency feature, which was introduced to give users more information about how moderation and recommendation decisions can affect the visibility of their content. The latest addition specifically focuses on restrictions that happen because of legal requirements from governments.
Under the new system, users will be able to find out when their posts have been downranked or otherwise had their reach reduced because X was responding to a government-required content restriction. The information will also identify the country connected to the legal demand.
This is significant because users previously had little direct information about whether their reduced reach was connected to a legal requirement. When posts appeared to receive less exposure without an obvious explanation, some users accused X, formerly known as Twitter, of secretly “shadowbanning” their accounts.
The term “shadowban” has often been used by users to describe situations where they believe their content is being shown to fewer people without being formally notified. Until now, it was difficult for individual users to determine whether a visibility change was caused by platform moderation, recommendation systems, legal requirements or other factors.
X’s latest update is designed to make at least one part of that process easier to understand. If the platform limits the visibility of an account or specific posts because it is legally required to do so, that information can now appear in the data available to the affected user.
The feature builds on X’s “Under the Hood” tool, which allows eligible users to download information about how their account and posts have been affected by various labels or visibility decisions. Users who have posted at least 10 times during a month can access their aggregate information through the tool and download it as a JSON file, a commonly used format for storing structured data.
For people who are not familiar with JSON files, the information can also be uploaded to an AI chatbot for an easier explanation. This gives users a relatively simple way to understand the data without having to manually read or interpret the technical information themselves.
The latest update adds another layer of information to that file. Users will be able to see whether their account or individual posts had their visibility restricted because X was complying with local laws. The information can also show which posts were withheld in a particular country and identify the country where the legal request originated.
Government requests to restrict online content can be based on different types of laws. Depending on the country, authorities may point to regulations covering hate speech, terrorism-related material, election rules and other categories of content.
However, the use of these laws has also been controversial. Free-expression groups have argued that some governments use content restrictions more broadly to suppress political criticism or dissent. X’s new disclosure does not determine whether a particular government request was justified, but it can give users more information about when a legal demand played a role in limiting their content.
The move also reflects X’s broader push toward greater transparency around how its platform works. The company has previously published parts of the code behind its “For You” recommendation system, which determines many of the posts users see in their main feeds.
X has also expanded its efforts to make portions of its wider codebase publicly available. Those releases have included additional information about model configuration, filtering systems and ranking mechanisms that influence how content is selected and displayed.
One important part of that information involves the parameters used to assign different weights to signals within X’s recommendation system. Those signals can influence which posts are given greater visibility, making the underlying details relevant to anyone trying to understand how content reaches users on the platform.
At the time of one of those open-source efforts, X’s vice president of product, Keith Coleman, highlighted how unusual the level of disclosure was, saying it was “the kind of thing that I think people will be fairly shocked that we are releasing.”
The new government-restriction disclosure adds another piece to that transparency effort by giving individual users information that previously would have been difficult to obtain from the platform.
For users, the biggest change is that a sudden drop in visibility may now come with more context when government requirements are responsible. Instead of relying entirely on speculation about whether an account has been “shadowbanned,” affected users can check their available data for an indication that a legal restriction was involved.
The update does not mean X will reveal every reason why a post receives less engagement or appears less frequently in users’ feeds. Recommendation systems, moderation decisions and normal changes in audience behavior can all affect reach. The new information specifically concerns visibility restrictions connected to X’s compliance with local laws.
By exposing the country involved and the posts affected, X is giving users a more detailed record of how government demands can influence what is visible on the platform. The company’s latest move therefore provides another way for users to distinguish between ordinary changes in reach and restrictions resulting from legal requirements.
