X will now tell users when governments have forced it to limit their posts

X said it will expand its ‘Under the Hood’ transparency tool to notify users when their posts or accounts have been downranked or withheld to comply with local laws, and it will disclose which country made the legal request. The update adds account- and post-level details to the existing monthly JSON download that previously reported labels and moderation signals.

By AI Newsroom· Reviewed by Pranav, Founder & Editor-in-ChiefPublished about 1 hour agoUpdated about 1 hour ago0 views

X will now tell users when governments have forced it to limit their posts

Why It Matters

This change gives individual users visibility into government-driven content restrictions rather than only aggregate transparency reports, advancing account-level clarity about when local laws affect content visibility. It follows X’s broader moves to open-source parts of its algorithm and codebase to increase transparency about how posts are ranked and filtered.

Key Facts

Company: X (formerly Twitter)
Feature expanded: Under the Hood transparency tool
What it shows now: If accounts/posts were downranked or withheld due to local laws, and which country made the request
Eligibility for data download: Users who posted at least 10 times during the month can download their aggregate stats as a JSON file
Announcement format: Tweet by X Open Source on September 19, 2026 (embedded in article)

X announced that its Under the Hood feature will now indicate when a user’s posts or account visibility has been limited because the company complied with local legal requirements. Previously the tool showed labels applied to accounts and posts that could affect visibility; the expansion adds explicit flags for downranking and country-level withholding requests. The downloadable report will identify which specific posts were withheld in a country following a legal demand and name the requesting country.

Before this change, information about individual accounts or posts being labeled or downranked was not available directly to end users, leading many to accuse the platform of shadowbanning. Most firms historically report government demands only in aggregate transparency reports; X’s move provides post- and account-level detail in the monthly JSON file it makes available to eligible users. The company said users who have posted at least 10 times in a month can download the file; non-technical users can have the JSON explained by an AI tool, the company noted.

The company framed the expansion as a response to user demand for more transparency around government-required content filtering. Governments request removals or restrictions for a range of reasons, including laws covering hate speech, terrorism-related material, and election rules; advocacy groups argue some governments use such laws to suppress political dissent. X’s update follows earlier transparency-related work, including open-sourcing its For You ranking algorithm and sharing more of its codebase details about model configuration, filtering, and ranking parameters.

X’s vice president of product, Keith Coleman, previously said the open-sourcing disclosures contained material people might find surprising. The new Under the Hood details aim to give users clearer, account-level explanations when laws or government requests affect who can see their content.