Social Rocket
X is expanding its transparency tool "Under the Hood". Users can now see whether the visibility of an account or individual posts was restricted due to local laws. The report also shows whether content was withheld in a specific country following a legal request – and which country was affected.
The expansion was announced on 19 September 2026 by X's official Open Source account and subsequently confirmed by Social Media Today and TechCrunch, among others.
What "Under the Hood" now additionally shows
X had introduced the tool in August 2026. Even then, users could check whether certain labels were applied to their account or posts that can affect algorithmic visibility.
The legal dimension is new. The downloadable report will now also indicate whether a visibility restriction was triggered by compliance with local laws. According to X, this also includes cases where a post was withheld in a country.
According to X, the feature is available for accounts that are at least one year old and published at least ten posts in the previous month.
This doesn't explain every drop in reach
For creators and brands, the additional transparency is helpful – but it doesn't automatically solve every reach puzzle.
A decline can still have many causes: normal fluctuations in the recommendation algorithm, user interests, labels from X's own policies, lower follower activity, or simply weaker performance of a post. "Under the Hood" now only makes one more part of these causes visible.
That's exactly why it's worth comparing with your regular performance data. In our overview of creator monetization on platforms, we show how strongly reach and earnings now depend on platform rules. And our Threads vs. X comparison puts into perspective how differently reach and usage are distributed between the two text platforms.
The new display is especially relevant for German accounts
X has to respond to different legal requirements in different markets. Until now, it was often hard for users to tell whether a post was less visible because of a platform rule, a ranking signal, or a legal requirement.
The new labeling at least adds context for legally mandated restrictions. It is therefore also relevant for European accounts, since platforms here additionally operate under the Digital Services Act and national legal provisions.
Our article on X's user decline in the EU shows why regulatory transparency is becoming increasingly relevant for the platform anyway.
What social media teams should practically do
If you use X professionally and see sudden drops in reach, you should not only compare impressions but also check the Under the Hood report. The combination of the following is particularly useful:
- Visibility and label data from Under the Hood,
- regular X analytics,
- changes in the active follower base,
- and comparing multiple posts instead of a single outlier.
The new feature is therefore not a replacement for analytics, but an additional layer of diagnosis. The most important progress is that visibility restrictions caused by law no longer have to remain completely in the dark.