Social apps are giving people more algorithm control over what fills the scroll. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and smaller upstarts such as Divine have rolled out tools to shape For You recommendations or build topic feeds, according to CNN’s October 22 report. The shift follows years of complaints that recommendation algorithms could send users down rabbit holes of irrelevant or even toxic content.
Key Takeaways
- Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Divine now offer feed-shaping tools.
- TikTok manage topics uses a sliding scale and does not remove topics.
- Your algorithm now applies across Instagram and recently expanded to Facebook.
- These features may not necessarily enable users to prevent AI-generated content.
Why Platforms Are Restoring Algorithm Control
Major apps replaced chronological feeds based on who users followed with algorithmic recommendations. The thinking was that data from activity on and off their sites could predict what people wanted better than users could.
Platforms have faced particular scrutiny over sometimes harmful content recommendations for young people. That frustration has ramped up over the past year as AI has played a growing role in what people see online, colliding with a wider populist backlash to AI, University of Notre Dame computer science and engineering professor Tim Weninger, who studies AI and social media, said.
“People have gotten fed up with AI feeding them stuff,” Weninger said. “They miss the old days … They just want to be able to follow what they follow and see the latest updates.”
CNN reported that advances in AI’s understanding of language let platforms process specific feedback, rather than only guessing from what users view and engage with. Instagram’s Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons told CNN that people can now use human language to ask for more or less of a topic. Previously, she said, “we were not able to accurately enough understand that if you said ‘tennis,’ what the most relevant tennis content was.”
What the New Feed Tools Actually Do
In 2022, Instagram brought back chronological following and favorites feeds that show only content from accounts a user opted to see, although the app defaulted to the main recommended feed each time a user opened it.
| Platform | Tool | Control | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Manage topics | Sliding scale by category | Does not remove topics altogether |
| TikTok | Smart keyword filtering | Flag a keyword to remove videos | Also removes videos with similar, related keywords |
| Your algorithm | Add topics to see or avoid | Button on the upper righthand side of the Reels tab | |
| Your algorithm | Add topics to see or avoid | Recently expanded to Facebook | |
| YouTube | Custom feeds | Tabs such as workout videos or late night ASMR | Dial up or down and change through the day |
CNN reported that TikTok introduced manage topics last June. Months later, Instagram rolled out your algorithm, first for the Reels tab. It now applies to the full app and recently expanded to Facebook.
YouTube announced custom feeds in September 2026 at Made on YouTube, as Mezha’s summary also noted.
How to Use Algorithm Control on Your Apps
In CNN’s account, a mom-to-be told her Instagram algorithm she was no longer interested in seeing content about “pregnancy” or “birth,” although at least for now she kept its suggestion to show “newborn parenting hacks.”
- Use the button on the upper righthand side of the Reels tab to add topics to see or avoid.
- On Facebook, your algorithm recently expanded from Instagram.
- On TikTok, adjust how much you see from categories such as fashion and beauty or health and fitness on a sliding scale.
- Flag a keyword to remove matching videos and videos with similar, related keywords.
- Add a YouTube tab such as workout videos or late night ASMR, then dial up or dial down what you see and change it through the day.
Instagram plans to prompt more use of your algorithm in the coming months. Lyons said it helps when interests change quickly, for example, someone may no longer want to see wedding planning content after they’re married, or videos of their ex-boyfriend’s favorite band after a breakup. Her selections currently include topics like “family rituals” and “Celine Dion.”
“What we’ve really tried to focus on is: how can we recreate the sense of agency that you had when you were controlling the accounts that you followed, but in a world that still gives you the benefits of recommendations,” Lyons told CNN.
What Algorithm Control Still Will Not Do
These features may not necessarily enable users to prevent AI-generated content from popping up in their feeds. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told reporters at the September event that separating AI-generated from human-made content is an “artificial distinction,” and that many videos combine both. Custom feeds, he said, are about letting viewers “program their feeds” and “dial up and dial down what you’d like to see, and you can change it throughout the course of the day.”
Weninger said it remains to be seen exactly how these changes will impact users. While users may tell a platform they want to see content on topics they enjoy, people are often more likely to view, comment on or share content that upsets or angers them, which could confuse the algorithms.
“If you say that you like soccer, and then you never actually watch a soccer video, then what’s the AI supposed to do?” he said.
