Account safety on X
X (Twitter) shadowban: what X says, and how to see yours with Under the Hood
X says it doesn’t shadowban, but it does limit reach. How to see the labels on your own account with X’s Under the Hood report, and what each label means.
Short answer: X says it doesn’t shadowban, meaning it doesn’t hide your posts from everyone but you. It does limit the reach of posts and accounts it puts a label on, most often by keeping them out of recommendations to people who don’t follow you. Since August 2026 you can see those labels yourself. Open x.com/i/under_the_hood on the web, press View report, and X lists every label it put on your posts and your account last month. “None in this period” means none. The report needs an account at least a year old with 10 or more posts in the month before.
What X says about shadowbans
X has answered this question for years, and the answer hasn’t changed. Its Help Center:
Simply put, we don’t shadow ban! Ever. We do rank posts to create a more relevant experience for you
Twitter defined the word in 2018:
deliberately making someone’s content undiscoverable to everyone except the person who posted it, unbeknownst to the original poster
That’s the thing X says it doesn’t do.
What people call a shadowban today is usually something X does admit to: limiting reach.
What X does: limit reach
X lists the ways it can make a post harder to find when it breaks a rule:
- leaving it out of search results, trends and recommended notifications
- removing it from the For you and Following timelines
- keeping it on the author’s profile only
- moving it down in replies
- turning off likes, replies, reposts or quotes on it
Source: X Help Center, How we enforce our rules.
The same page says that since April 2023, posts limited for breaking the rules get a label that both the author and readers can see, and that authors can appeal it. A second page lists the other reasons a post may reach fewer people, from spam signals to X’s experiments:
We are constantly running experiments on X which may limit the reach of certain posts.
How to check with Under the Hood
On August 13, 2026, X published the code behind its For You feed, and with it a report anyone can use to see the labels on their own account. X calls it Under the Hood.
- On a computer, go to x.com/i/under_the_hood while you’re logged in.
- The page shows the month it covers and whether your account qualifies: 10 or more posts in the month before, and an account at least a year old.
- Press View report. You’ll see how many posts you made that month, then two lists: Post labels and Account labels.
- “None in this period” under both means X put no label that limits reach on your posts or your account that month.
- Press Download for the same report as a JSON file.
X opened the report to every account that meets those two conditions on September 18, 2026. It covers the last full month, so a label from this week shows up next month.
What the labels mean
The report names each label, says what it means, and says what it does to your posts. The list comes from X’s code. These are the ones that touch replies most:
| Label | What X says it means | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| SPAM_HIGH_RECALL (on a post) | Automated systems found it may contain spam | Hidden from recommendations to people who don’t follow you |
| SPAM (on a post) | It broke the authenticity policy | Not shown on X |
| SpamHighRecall (on the account) | The account is likely to post spam | Your posts are hidden from recommendations to people who don’t follow you |
| ReadOnly (on the account) | The account is in read-only mode | You can post again once the post in question is removed |
| FOSNR labels (on a post) | Abuse, hateful conduct, violent speech or civic integrity | Shown only on your profile, with a label everyone can see |
Source: X’s open-source labels file, under-the-hood.
For a post label, the report shows how many of your posts it hit that month. For an account label, it shows on how many days the label was on. It doesn’t say which posts.
Most labels share one effect: followers still see your posts, and everyone else stops being shown them. That fits what people describe as a shadowban, with one difference. X tells you now.
Every label, in plain words, is in X Under the Hood labels, explained. Or drop your downloaded report into our free Under the Hood reader, and it explains yours.
If the report shows a label
- Read the effect line first. “Hidden from recommendations to non-followers” is a smaller problem than “Not shown on X”.
- Look at the month. The report covers one month, and labels on posts are counted per post.
- Stop what fits the label. For the spam labels, that’s what Show probable spam and X account locked, limited or suspended cover: many replies in a short time, many replies to one person, the same words again and again.
- Appeal when a label is wrong. X says authors can appeal a label on a post, and its notices carry a Request Review button where X offers one. Our own label came off 20 minutes after we pressed it, as we tell in We lost a Twitter (X) account because of replies.
Twick’s Safe mode reminds you when you pass 30 replies in an hour, 100 in a day, 5 to the same person in a day, or two replies only seconds apart. It’s a reminder you can ignore, and no tool can promise X will never put a label on an account.
What third-party shadowban checkers can see
Shadowban checkers look at your account from the outside: they search for your posts while logged out and guess from what’s missing. Under the Hood is X’s own record of the labels on your account. When the two disagree, go with X’s.
Questions
Does X shadowban accounts?
X says it doesn’t, in the sense of hiding your posts from everyone but you. It does limit reach, and since August 2026 it shows you the labels that do it.
How do I know if I’m shadowbanned on X?
Open x.com/i/under_the_hood on the web and press View report. If both lists say “None in this period”, X put no reach label on you that month.
Why can’t I see Under the Hood?
The report needs an account at least one year old, with 10 or more posts in the month before. Suspended accounts don’t get one. It also covers the last full month only, so a new account or a quiet month won’t have one.
How long does a shadowban last on X?
X doesn’t say. The report shows on how many days of the month an account label was on, so you can watch it month by month.
Can I check someone else’s account?
No. Under the Hood shows the report for the account you’re logged in with.
Does X Premium stop a shadowban?
X doesn’t say it does. Premium ranks your replies higher under a post, and one of our Premium accounts still got a label that cut its reach.