TikTok will soon let European users turn off personalized feeds

It will be possible to disable personalized TikTok content recommendations in the European Union. The social media platform will be making that change ‘soon’ due to the Digital Services Act, which requires companies to opt-out of personalized content.

TikTok reports that it will ‘soon’ be possible to disable personalization within the European Union. Users who turn off their personalized For You feed will no longer see content based on their personal interests in their For You and Live feeds. Instead, it shows “popular videos” from both where they live and places around the world.

The search function in TikTok will also only show popular, non-personalized content, next to posts from friends. Videos from accounts followed by users will appear chronologically in the Following and Friends feeds after the change. Furthermore, TikTok will no longer show personalized advertisements to underage users by default. This option is currently enabled by default.

The changes are related to the European Digital Services Act. Under that law, major tech platforms must offer the option to disable personalized content. Such content is offered based on user interests. These recommendations are based on tracking user activity. TikTok is not sharing an exact date for when the changes will be implemented. However, the company says it will meet the EU deadline of August 28.