X open sources its ranking algorithm, letting users see if they’ve been ‘shadowbanned’

“Our dream is that anyone in the public can be able to assess how posts are distributed on the platform, vet that it’s a level playing field, and, if they think it’s not, critique it so we can keep improving it and addressing it,” Coleman said.

“That’s the whole goal of this: can be audited; it can be critiqued. We’re going to listen, and we want to make the system one that people like and trust, and feel is fair,” he said.

Though X may be pushing itself to be more transparent around its code and other features, like its crowdsourced fact-checking system, Community Notes, it arguably became less transparent overall under Musk, after becoming a private company again. As it was no longer required to report to the SEC, X was not as forthcoming in other areas, like its user metrics, growth, revenue, or government takedown requests, which are now less frequently reported.

Now merged with SpaceX, its monthly active users are once again public.

Correction: Included a clarification that X merged with SpaceX and now reports public numbers around user metrics. Coleman also said during the interview that external researchers were about to get “the whole score up and running themselves,” but the company clarified that they trained and ran the Phoenix scoring system themselves, but did not get the per-post score.