X now tells users when local laws have reduced their posts' visibility

This addition to Under the Hood could stave off claims around shadowbanning.

sdx15/Shutterstock Add Engadget on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover Social media network X has added more transparency surrounding some of its visibility practices, which could further reduce claims that the platform engages in shadowbanning. The company announced that its Under the Hood menu will now reveal if X has limited visibility for an account's posts in compliance with local laws. This addition will list whatever country has requested to have access to the content restricted and the posts that drew scrutiny.

We've expanded Under The Hood after seeing people's appreciation of more transparency into government-required content filtering.

In addition to showing labels applied to your account and posts in the prior month, Under The Hood now shows if your account or posts had their... https://t.co/Op5rBnE1jg pic.twitter.com/ZUrbkO28ay

The basic requirements for using Under the Hood are that the profile has been active for more than a year and has at least ten posts in the previous month. Anyone meeting those criteria can take advantage of the new features. Under the Hood initially became available in limited testing during August, offering some transparency around the algorithms that power the For You feed on X and any labels applied to posts. It's not the most intuitive data dump, as the information is provided in a dense JSON file, but any chance to see into what has historically been a black box for the platform seems like a positive change.