X's algorithm adds a named filter for Brazil's 2026 election

A public, 1,573-line file in X's algorithm repository sits in the part of the code that decides what the For You feed (X's main recommendation timeline) shows about Brazil's 2026 election. It takes effect August 16. You can read it.

The file, brazil_2026_election_filter.rs, lives in the xai-org/x-algorithm repository under the same home-mixer/filters path that ranks the feed most users see by default. In plain language, it removes officially registered candidate accounts and their posts from For You recommendations during the election period, unless a user already follows the account.

X says the change is compliance with TSE Resolution No. 23,610/2019, the Brazilian electoral court rule requiring recommendation systems to exclude those accounts and their posts. The company calls it neither a penalty nor a change to its own rules. Candidates are not suspended; their content stays on their profiles. The consequence is reach: those accounts and posts will not be surfaced to users who have not chosen to follow them.

The remaining question is what the code does beyond the regulatory minimum. The visible repository excerpt does not show whether the module merely enforces the exclusion or also shapes how election content circulates around it. The Hacker News discussion of the release treats the drop as a primary-source disclosure; a full read of the file is the next step for any reader who wants to know what the feed will actually do.