Users of X can now see, directly within the app, when a country’s laws have led to a post’s reach being reduced. The update lands inside the Under the Hood menu and gives qualifying accounts a concrete reason for any drop in visibility tied to a legal takedown or restriction request, replacing guesswork with a plain explanation.
The new disclosure lists the specific country whose law triggered the action, along with the posts that drew scrutiny. It is designed to address a long-running complaint: users who suspect their reach was quietly throttled with no explanation. By surfacing the legal reason, X gives account holders a way to confirm whether a visibility change was policy-driven rather than an arbitrary platform decision.
What Under the Hood now shows
Under the Hood first appeared in limited testing in August, originally giving users a look at how the For You feed ranks content and at any labels applied to their posts. The latest addition extends that window into a historically closed system. Users who meet the eligibility criteria can pull up the menu and see if X limited the visibility of any of their posts in order to comply with local laws, and which country’s request prompted the action.
The data surfaces as a dense JSON file rather than a polished dashboard. That format makes it easier to parse programmatically, but it is not the most intuitive read for a casual user. Even so, the ability to see which specific posts were affected, and under whose jurisdiction, marks a step toward making platform-level content decisions more auditable.
Who can access the new disclosures
Two basic requirements gate the feature. A profile must have been active for more than a year, and it must have posted at least ten times in the previous month. Accounts that meet both thresholds can open Under the Hood and inspect any visibility changes tied to legal compliance.
Why this matters for shadowban claims
The feature directly addresses the shadowban debate, where users have long argued that platforms quietly suppress certain posts or accounts without telling the affected person. By attaching a country name and a list of affected posts to each visibility reduction, X draws a line between moderation that originates from a government or legal request and moderation that originates from the platform itself.
That distinction is useful for two groups. Account holders get a faster way to find out whether a drop in engagement came from a legal block in a specific market. Researchers and journalists get another data point when comparing how different jurisdictions shape what reaches a global audience on X.
What still sits outside the disclosure
The Under the Hood window is not a full audit log. It covers visibility limits tied to local laws and the algorithmic inputs behind the For You feed. It does not, based on what has been announced, explain every moderation action X takes, nor does it reveal how the platform’s broader recommendation system weights any individual post. Users who want a complete picture of why a post underperformed still need to combine this data with their own analytics and any labels shown directly on the post itself.
FAQ
What is the Under the Hood menu on X?
Under the Hood is a transparency menu inside X that shows users how their content is being treated by the platform. It first launched in limited testing in August, originally surfacing information about how the For You feed ranks posts and about any labels applied to posts. The menu has since been expanded to include visibility reductions tied to local laws.
Who can see if their posts were limited by local laws?
Accounts that have been active for more than a year and have posted at least ten times in the previous month can open Under the Hood and check for any visibility limits tied to a country’s legal request.
Does this prove X does not shadowban users?
The new disclosure explains when a post’s reach was reduced to comply with a specific country’s law and lists the affected posts. It does not cover every moderation action on the platform, so it cannot, on its own, settle broader shadowban claims. It does, however, give users a way to tell when a visibility change was driven by a legal requirement rather than a platform decision.
This article summarizes reporting from engadget.com. See our editorial disclaimer for how our articles are produced.
Run a free scan to see your AI Visibility Score, SEO rating, and local citation accuracy.