X Expands Transparency Tool to Alert Users to Government-Mandated Downranking

X announced on Monday that it will now notify users when their posts have been downranked or restricted in visibility due to the company's compliance with local laws.

The update is an expansion of "Under the Hood," a transparency feature X introduced in August to give users visibility into moderation labels applied to their accounts or posts. According to a report by TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/21/x-will-now-tell-users-when-governments-have-forced-it-to-limit-their-posts/), the tool now highlights post downranking driven by government-mandated content filtering.

Under the system, any user who has posted at least 10 times in a given month can access "Under the Hood" in their application settings to download their monthly metrics as a JSON file. The data export details moderation actions, and X noted that non-technical users can paste the file into an AI chatbot to generate an explanation.

With the latest expansion, the export will specify if an account or post had its visibility restricted due to local legal compliance. The file will also list which specific posts were withheld in a country following a legal demand, along with the country that made the request.

Most major social media platforms disclose government requests only in aggregate format through periodic transparency reports, rather than disclosing account-level or post-level enforcement directly to affected users.

Government demands for content filtering often cite legal prohibitions regarding hate speech, terrorism, and election regulations. Free-expression advocates and critics have frequently noted that governments also use these statutes to suppress political dissent.

The update follows earlier transparency initiatives from X, including open-sourcing its "For You" feed recommendation algorithm and releasing deeper codebase details covering model configuration, filtering, and the core ranking system that weights different signals.