X has changed pretty radically since Elon Musk acquired it in 2022, dropped the Twitter branding, and allowed all manner of unsavory characters back on the platform in the name of free speech. New tools, however, could offer details on how content ends up in your feed and why some of your tweets seemingly disappear into the ether.
Earlier this week, the company made the source code for its “For You” timeline available on GitHub under the Apache v2 license. This means you can see how and why certain posts appear near the top of your feed when you open the app, and others do not.
In an interview with TechCrunch, X’s VP of Product, Keith Coleman, said the GitHub release includes “the core ranking code that pulls posts and ranks them for any given user and assembles the feed.” The code repository contains the systems used to filter out potentially problematic, rule-violating content, according to Coleman.
X is also testing tools that will let users see how X’s algorithms affect their posts, including whether their tweets are hidden or “shadowbanned.” To access the tool, head to the Under the Hood page (it’s not available via the Settings tab), where users can download their data as a JSON file to see if any labels have been added to their account.
Not everyone will be able to access the tool. Your account will need to be over a year old, have at least 10 posts in the last month, and be part of a randomly selected test cohort.
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As TechCrunch points out, this data might not mean much if you’re not technically inclined enough to decipher it. However, interested users can use a large language model, such as X’s Grok, to analyze the data, prompting it to consult X’s GitHub page for guidance.
The move follows a long history of users reporting that they were “shadowbanned” on the platform. This is where a social media platform deprioritizes a user’s posts in other users’ feeds without any official ban, even if the user isn’t notified. Musk has long promised to shed light on accusations of shadowbanning on the platform.
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