TikTok users don’t have as much agency over their FYPs as they think
Summary
Ars Technica covers a Northwestern study that audits TikTok's FYP personalization. The researchers found that negative feedback helps reduce unwanted content, but effects fade over time unless feedback is consistently maintained; the not-interested option is hard to find and easy to trigger relapses. The work uses emulated devices and LLMs to analyze how the algorithm responds, highlighting limited user agency and the challenges of studying individualized feeds.