● Covered by 2 sources · 2 reportsMedium impact2 neutral
X to notify users when posts are limited due to government legal demands
Key points
- X will notify users of government-mandated post limitations.
- Notifications will detail withheld posts, requesting country, and reason.
- This expands the existing "Under the Hood" transparency tool.
- Information is available via a JSON file for users who posted at least 10 times.
- X's 'Under the Hood' now shows labels applied to accounts and posts from the prior month.
- Users must have an active profile for over a year to use 'Under the Hood'.
New Transparency Feature for Content Limitations
X announced that it will now directly inform users when their posts have been "shadowbanned" or downranked due to the company's adherence to local laws. This new functionality is an extension of X's existing "Under the Hood" transparency tool, which previously allowed users to check for labels applied to their accounts or posts that might affect visibility.
Accessing Moderation Details
The updated system will highlight instances of content downranking resulting from government-required filtering. Users can access this information through a JSON file, available to those who have posted at least 10 times in a month. This file will specify which posts were withheld in a particular country following a legal demand and identify the requesting country.
Context of Government Requests
Governments issue such demands for various reasons, including laws against hate speech, terrorism-related content, and election regulations. While X complies with these legal requirements, free-expression groups have noted that some countries may use these laws to suppress political dissent.
Broader Transparency Initiatives
This update is part of X's ongoing efforts to increase transparency. Previous initiatives include the open-sourcing of its "For You" algorithm, which determines the posts in users' main feeds, and the expansion of its codebase open-sourcing. The latter provided more detailed information on model configuration, filtering, and core ranking system parameters, offering insight into how posts are displayed.
Updates
- X's 'Under the Hood' now shows labels applied to accounts and posts from the prior month.
- Users must have an active profile for over a year to use 'Under the Hood'.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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How outlets covered it
X has updated its "Under the Hood" feature to notify users when their posts' visibility is limited due to local legal compliance. This change aims to increase transparency regarding content moderation and address concerns about shadowbanning.
X will now inform users when their posts have reduced visibility or are withheld in specific countries due to compliance with local laws and government requests. This expands X's "Under the Hood" transparency tool, allowing users to see specific moderation actions affecting their content.