TikTok: “not interested”? The app doesn’t care a bit

It is normally possible to report content that is addressed to you and which does not interest you, unfortunately the application does not seem to make much of your opinion. Newspaper.

In a lengthy post about TikTok, Meera Navlakha discusses the “not interested” feature on TikTok and its near non-existent impact on her News Feed.

It’s an experience that some of you have certainly already had, in the news feed “For you”, TikTok offers a selection of videos supposed to correspond to our tastes. However, it regularly happens that an infuriating “sound” or a completely unknown “celebrity” appears there.

For these specific cases, it is possible to long press on the video and click on “Not interested”. The application then sends a confirmation message stating that it will offer you less content of the same genre.

A seemingly inefficient function

Noting the lack of efficiency of this function, the Mashable journalist looked into the subject to see if he was the only one in this case or not. The results seem to speak for themselves:

need tiktok to understand when i say not interested I AM NOT INTERESTED

– shri (@inejskate) April 21, 2022

The “not interested” option in tiktok is so useless. They keep coming any way.

— A (@aurafeels) April 23, 2022

Worse still, some users even feel that the more content they reject, the more the app offers them similar content:

does anyone else feel like the more you press “not interested” on content on tiktok the more you get content like what youre not interested in

— elle s. m. (@elleluvskate) April 26, 2022

I am convinced that the more I press “not interested” on tiktok, the more videos it gives me about that exact thing

– 🧚🏻‍♀️ (@kaelibeee) April 26, 2022

On Reddit, same observation. In the subreddit r / Tiktokhelp (which includes 26.2 k users), the messages are linked with “super boring”, “nightmarish suggested topics” and other “whyiiiiii”. One of the users even claims to have done multiple manipulations (from reinstalling the application to completely resetting the phone) to try to influence this thread.

So everyone has their own technique: spend as little time as possible on the video by going directly to the next one, not clicking on certain hashtags… of course, none of them have proven to be reliable.

The TikTok algorithm

Contacted by Mashable, TikTok simply referred reporters to an old news story from 2019, as well as on its support page which both state that the “Not Interested” button is used to select content you like by shrinking content display. not appreciated.

Indeed, TikTok does not undertake to remove the display of this content, just to reduce its frequency, without specifying the extent of this reduction. This is definitely an implementation of the algorithm, the same one that came to light in 2021.

The goal of TikTok is to keep you on the app for as long as possible and to keep you coming back to the app as often as possible. For this, we offer you a personalized thread, which knows everything about you (your sexual orientation, your heartache, your quest for a pet, etc.). The app also makes sure to provide you with diverse content to avoid boredom.

And if the videos, for which the user indicates not to be not interested, were a way to “wake him up” from time to time? Contradictory for an app that wants you to stick around as long as possible, but breaking up the scrolling monotony with an action is also a way to keep you around longer.

TikTok

TikTok is a video clip sharing social network that has quickly established itself as a leader in this field, available as a mobile application, you can take it with you anywhere.

• Downloads:
  2648
• Release date :
  28/04/2022
• Auteur :
  TikTok
• Licence :
  Free License
• Categories:
  

  Video – Communication

• Operating system :
  

  Android, Online service All Internet browsers, Windows 10/11, iOS iPhone / iPad
  

If the algorithm takes you, as it has in the past, to sensitive content, there is a flagging function that goes beyond just “not interested”. For the rest, the Mashable journalist reminds us that it is possible to like or share the content that we appreciate, which should allow the algorithm to display more on the same subject.

It’s just unfortunate that a feature introduced to help users control the content displayed isn’t as effective as it should be. But that leaves TikTok room for improvement to offer specially personalized “For You” content.