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X has substantially expanded its open source initiative by releasing the code behind its “For You” algorithm and core ranking engine on GitHub under the Apache v2 license. The company has increased its public codebase by approximately 10 to 15 times its previous size, making available the model configurations, filtering systems, and ranking parameters that determine which posts appear in users’ feeds.
Alongside the code release, X is introducing new transparency tools accessible through the app’s settings. Users who have posted at least 10 times in the past month can download their account statistics as a JSON file, which reveals whether labels have been applied to their account or individual posts. The platform notes that non-technical users can upload this data to an artificial intelligence tool for interpretation, paired with the publicly available GitHub repository.
The initiative represents X’s effort to address longstanding criticism about algorithm transparency and accusations of “shadowbanning,” where posts become invisible to other users without notification. Product Vice President Keith Coleman indicated that external researchers have already successfully replicated the ranking system outside the company. While certain systems, such as those using Grok for rule violation prediction, remain undisclosed to prevent circumvention by bad actors, the company expressed enthusiasm about potentially accepting code contributions from developers to improve the algorithm.
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Originally reported by Techcrunch →
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