Your TikTok For Your Page Is About to Look Very Different Following This Content Ban
If you enjoy laying in bed and doom scrolling through your TikTok For You Page — a.k.a. FYP — for entertainment, expect your feed to look significantly different in a few weeks.
In February, TikTok released a new set of guidelines regarding what will be excluded from the feed in order to "further support the well-being of our community and the integrity of our platform."
Cormac Keenan, head of Trust and Safety, announced in a statement that the company's main areas of change include the following:
Strengthening our dangerous acts and challenges policy. Broadening our approach to eating disorders. Adding clarity on the types of hateful ideologies prohibited on our platform. Expanding our policy to protect the security, integrity, availability, and reliability of our platform.
TikTok will specifically crack down on sexual content, noting anything "overtly sexually suggestive may not be eligible for recommendation," such as "content that depicts implied nudity, is blatantly erotic or sensual (like thirst traps or strip teases), or sexualizes body parts, would likely not be recommended into For You feeds."
In a new effort to protect minors, any "content created by accounts under age 16 is not eligible for recommendation or search results" and will only appear on the FYP once the user turns 18. Under the new system, any content uploaded by someone under the age of 16 automatically won't appear on the FYP and will only do so once they turn 18.
In addition, dangerous stunts and sports "performed by non-professionals" will now be under scrutiny to protect users from potential harm should they choose to attempt said stunts. In the future, some videos may feature an "opt-in" setting or warning.
Content flagged as spam, content which "tricks or manipulates" viewers for likes, will now be ineligible for the FYP.
To keep TikTok as authentic as possible, the company will nix "imported or uploaded from TikTok, other platforms, or other sources including television, movies, or webcasts, [if] the user has not added new, creative edits." They will be deemed unoriginal, and therefore not show up on your FYP.
The new rules, which have been expanded to 13 sections, will go into effect March 7.
TikTok user @seansvv broke down the new guidelines in a video that has been viewed over 4.1 million times. See the clip here:
Viral videos spread like wildfire on TikTok, with a lot of help from the FYP. Many users use the FYP hashtag (#FYP) in hopes of appearing on the feed, which is curated differently for each user based on their likes, history and habits.
In their statement, TikTok shared that "the ability to discover new ideas, creators, and interests is part of what makes our platform unique, content in someone’s For You feed may come from a creator they haven’t chosen to follow or relate to an interest they haven’t previously engaged with."