{"id":380039,"date":"2025-12-30T08:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380039\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T08:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:37:16","slug":"how-to-tweak-your-online-platform-algorithms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380039\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tweak your online platform algorithms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love them or hate them, more than half<\/a> of the world\u2019s population interacts with algorithmic recommendations in some way every day. Algorithmic recommendations play an integral role in how users discover new content across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. It can be nice to be fed a stream of fresh posts, pictures, and videos that are already tailored to our interests instead of manually hunting for content to engage with, but algorithms don\u2019t always show you what you actually want to see.<\/p>\n

Many online platforms provide features that aim to help you fix this. The algorithms they deploy are, after all, designed<\/a> to make you spend more time consuming content and work in similar ways. Recommendations may be based on demographic data like age, sex, and location, your online activity, what you and similar users are interacting with, and more. Most algorithm tuning features follow the same basic premise: you tell the platform what you want to see more of, or less of.<\/p>\n

For example, Meta\u2019s in-development \u201cDear algo\u201d feature for Threads<\/a> takes that premise quite literally, allowing users to ask for \u201cmore\u201d of specific type of content. Meanwhile, the recently launched \u201cYour Algorithm\u201d tool for Instagram<\/a> lets users see and manage which topics are driving their Reels recommendations. Some content on online platforms may be artificially promoted<\/a> regardless of whether it aligns with user interests<\/a>, however. This article breaks down what algorithm tuning tools are provided by some of the most popular online platforms, and other solutions that can help you to \u2014 at least partially<\/a> \u2014 reign in recommended content.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cInterested\u201d and \u201cNot interested\u201d options will also be identified with Plus and Minus icons respectively. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

The posts that appear on your Facebook feed are a mix of recommended content and whatever is being published by friends and pages you follow. For the latter, you can just leave any page groups you\u2019re no longer interested in and unfriend users to stop seeing their posts.<\/p>\n

An easy way to do this is to go to Settings & privacy > Content preferences, and then open the \u201cUnfollow people and groups\u201d option to quickly manage your friends and group lists in one place. The Content preferences menu also lets you toggle off suggestions for political content and provides a \u201cShow less\u201d option for sensitive or graphic content.<\/p>\n

There are other controls available under Settings & privacy > Settings > Your activity > Activity log that list other interactions you\u2019ve had on the platform: comments, search history, videos watched, and more. Deleting these interaction histories (either individually or by clearing them entirely) may help to prevent Facebook\u2019s algorithm from suggesting similar content in the future.<\/p>\n

For specific posts, you can click into the three-dot menu at the top right of the post itself and select either \u201cInterested\u201d to see more of similar content, or \u201cNot interested\u201d to prompt Facebook into showing you less related content. Meta said it\u2019s planning to \u201cintroduce new ways for you to shape your Feed\u201d on Facebook in the coming months, including the ability to give feedback on why something in your feed may not be relevant to you.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

This AI-generated summarization of your interests is currently only applicable to Instagram\u2019s Reels feature. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

For Reels specifically, Meta has a tool that allows you to manage which topics Instagram is using to feed recommended videos to your Reels tab. On the Instagram mobile app, you can tap the icon that resembles two hearts on line sliders at the top-right corner of Reels videos to see an AI-generated summary of topics that are based on your activity history, such as gaming, haircare, college football, or whatever else you\u2019ve interacted with.<\/p>\n

Tapping on any of these interests gives you the options to watch Reels on that topic, delete it from your interests, or specify to see less of it on your feed. You can also manually add new interests that you want to see more or less of that aren\u2019t included in the AI summary. The Instagram app will also let you tap the three-dot menu on individual Reels to select \u201cInterested\u201d or \u201cNot Interested,\u201d but this feature isn\u2019t available on the desktop Reels tab.<\/p>\n

The main Instagram feed presents those Interested \/ Not Interested options on both mobile and desktop devices. And like Facebook, Instagram users can click into Settings to manage preferences for sensitive and political content and curate their activity history across likes, comments, reposts, tags, and more to remove anything that might be flagging certain interests to Instagram\u2019s algorithm.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Algo lets you adjust your Threads algorithm by describing in your own words what you want to see more or less of. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

Threads allows you to tap on the three-dot menu on any post on the web and mobile app, and select \u201cNot interested\u201d to see less content around that topic. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, however, Threads won\u2019t let you specify posts you want to see more of. There are also fewer options to manage recommended content if you head into the account settings on desktop devices \u2014 you can restrict profiles to see fewer posts from them, block profiles entirely, and mute specific words or phrases to prevent posts that contain them from appearing in your feeds.<\/p>\n

The Threads mobile app will provide additional options under the settings menu at the top right of your user profile. From there, you can remove any likes you\u2019ve left on posts, or select \u201cContent preferences\u201d to toggle suggestions for political and sensitive content, alongside muting accounts and filtering words.<\/p>\n

Threads is also testing a feature called \u201cDear algo requests\u201d that can be accessed under this menu, or by typing \u201cDear algo\u201d in a post, and then describing what you want to see more or less often in your feeds for up to three days. I\u2019m seeing this feature available on my own account in the UK, but the beta may not be available to every user yet.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

X will suggests topics for you to follow based on how you\u2019ve interacted with the platform, but you can also manually add your own. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

There are two ways to tune your algorithm on X, and they can both be accessed the same way across web and mobile apps. The first is to tap the three-dot menu at the top right of a post on your \u201cFor You\u201d feed, and select \u201cNot interested in this post\u201d to see less of any similar content. Note that this option won\u2019t appear if you open the post itself, so make sure you\u2019re accessing the menu from the feed timeline.<\/p>\n

The second and more comprehensive option is to open Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Content you see. This view will let you toggle to display media containing sensitive content and see a full list of interests that X is using to \u201cpersonalize your experience\u201d across the platform. These will all feature a ticked checkbox, so just go through and untick anything you\u2019re not actually interested in seeing, though X says that changes \u201cmay take a little while to go into effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cContent you see\u201d menu also lets you mute accounts and keywords to keep them out of your feeds and manage topics you want to follow or see less of. Following topics will prompt X to show you more related content, while the topics on posts you\u2019ve already flagged to see less of will appear under the \u201cNot interested\u201d tab.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

TikTok provides a list of generic topics that you can manage with a slider control, sliding left to see less, and right to see more. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

TikTok provides similar algorithm tuning tools to X, including the ability to flag specific videos you\u2019re not interested in. You can access this on the TikTok mobile app by long-pressing on the video or by opening the three-dot menu at the top right of videos on the desktop web platform. Web users can also open the settings menu to filter specific keywords, preventing posts that contain them in titles, descriptions, or stickers from appearing in your feeds.<\/p>\n

Additional features can only be accessed on the TikTok mobile apps. On your user profile, open the three-line menu at the top right and select Settings and privacy > Content preferences. You can open the Manage topics option to see a list of preset interests like Dance, Humor, Sports, Food & Drink, and more, each with a slider to adjust if you want to see more or less of that topic on your feed. Content preferences also allow you to enable a \u201cRestricted Mode\u201d that limits content that \u201cmay not be comfortable for all audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more drastic changes, TikTok has a feature that helps to retrain its algorithm to what video topics you enjoy watching. Selecting \u201cRefresh your For You feed\u201d under Content preferences will \u201ctemporarily show you popular videos you may not normally see,\u201d according to TikTok, allowing it to learn what you like from scratch based on videos you like, share, and interact with.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need to be on the YouTube homescreen to see both the \u201cNot interested\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t recommend channel\u201d options. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

YouTube\u2019s algorithm tuning tools may require some patience because the platform doesn\u2019t provide an overview of topics or interests you\u2019re being targeted with. On the YouTube homepage, you can open the three-dot menu at the bottom right under each video on the web or mobile app and then select \u201cNot interested\u201d to see less of similar content, or \u201cDon\u2019t recommend channel\u201d to keep the creator who posted it out of your feeds.<\/p>\n

The same feature works slightly differently for Shorts \u2014 the \u201cNot interested\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t recommend channel\u201d options are both available on the YouTube mobile app\u2019s Shorts tab and can be accessed by either long-pressing on a video or opening the three-dot menu at the top right. The Shorts tab on YouTube\u2019s web platform only provides you with the option to block channel recommendations, however, and only allows you to tag Shorts you\u2019re not interested in if those Shorts appear on YouTube\u2019s homepage.<\/p>\n

If you want to hide recommended videos entirely, you can delete and turn off your YouTube watch history on your connected Google account by going to My Activity<\/a> > YouTube History.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Like YouTube, you\u2019ll only see the option to show fewer posts on Reddit\u2019s suggested content if you\u2019re on the Reddit home feed, and not if you\u2019ve opened the post itself. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

There are a few ways to adjust what content will appear on your Reddit home feed. As we\u2019ve seen with other platforms, you can open the three-dot menu at the top right of suggested posts and select \u201cShow fewer posts like this.\u201d You can also click on your user profile and open Settings > Preferences on the web, or Settings > Account settings on the Reddit mobile app to mute specific subreddit communities, filter out mature content, or toggle home feed recommendations off entirely.<\/p>\n

If you keep it active, then Reddit will recommend posts based on your activity on the platform, including your search history and posts or communities you\u2019ve interacted with.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Bluesky gives you the freedom to ditch its preset Discover feed entirely. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to direct what content you want to see in the preset Discover feed on Bluesky. Just open the three-dot menu at the bottom right on any post and \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 select if you want to see more or less of similar content. Alternatively, you can unpin the Discover feed entirely and replace it with a more curated feed that focuses on topics you\u2019re interested in by selecting one of the options under the My feeds tab, identified by its hashtag symbol.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Still using Tumblr? It has fewer algorithm tweaking options compared to other social platforms. Image by The Verge | Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n

Like other platforms, the algorithm on Tumblr\u2019s \u201cFor you\u201d tab is largely prompted by how you interact with the platform itself and what\u2019s popular with similar users in your communities. If you like art and follow a lot of artists, Tumblr will recommend art-related posts, and so forth.<\/p>\n

For posts that aren\u2019t from users or communities you follow, you can open the three-dot menu to tag that you\u2019re not interested in the post itself, or the community it was shared in. You can also open Settings > Dashboard preferences to turn off suggestions that are \u201cbased on your likes\u201d and posts from your communities in the following tab.<\/p>\n

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See All TikTok<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love them or hate them, more than half of the world\u2019s population interacts with algorithmic recommendations in some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,15861,2456,36416,1202,1333,1314,1996,105,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-380039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-creators","14":"tag-facebook","15":"tag-how-to","16":"tag-instagram","17":"tag-meta","18":"tag-social-media","19":"tag-tech","20":"tag-technology","21":"tag-tiktok"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}