X Now Flags Posts Hidden Under Government Legal Demands

X announced Monday that it will now tell users when their posts have been "shadowbanned" — shown to fewer people — because the company is complying with local laws. The feature expands an existing transparency tool called "Under the Hood," which lets users see whether labels applied to their account or posts affected their visibility on the platform.

The same tool will also surface downranking triggered by government-required content filtering. Until now, users could not see how their account or posts were labeled or downranked, which fueled persistent accusations that the company, formerly known as Twitter, shadowbanned them.

The move also breaks from industry convention. Most platforms that disclose government requests do so in aggregate form through periodic "transparency reports," not at the account or post level.

The groundwork came in August, when X rolled out its transparency tool to give users more visibility into moderation decisions. The "Under the Hood" option in X's app settings allows anyone who has posted at least 10 times during the month to download their aggregate stats as a JSON file — a standard data format. Non-technical users can drop the file into any AI chatbot to get a plain-language explanation.

The expanded process now shows whether an account or specific posts had their visibility limited because X complied with local laws. The file also identifies which posts were withheld in a country following a legal demand, and which country made the request.

Governments justify these demands with a range of rationales: laws against hate speech, terrorism-related content, and election rules. Critics, including free-expression groups, counter that some countries use the same laws to suppress political dissent.

For practitioners, the implications are direct. Publishers and creators operating across borders can now verify, post by post, whether a reach drop stems from a government demand rather than an algorithmic penalty or audience shift. That distinction matters for anyone auditing distribution in markets with aggressive content rules — and for teams advising clients on geographic risk.

The update continues a broader transparency push at X. The company open-sourced its "For You" algorithm, which selects the posts in users' main feed, and has opened parts of its codebase with added detail on model configuration, filtering, and core ranking system behavior. The code now includes the parameters used to weight different signals — the key information for understanding which posts actually get displayed.

When that open-sourcing effort launched, X's 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."

As per-post legal takedown data becomes user-visible, expect publishers to map jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction reach losses with far more precision — and to press other platforms to match X's account-level disclosure.