PSA: on youtube, you can turn off the algorithm by turning off watch history, so you will only see your subscriptions page, but also related videos under the current video you're on. I spend less time there now, and enjoy the content I do watch much more.
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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If you've still got cookies on, the related videos are based in your algo. If you open a new private window and watch a few videos your front page will update to reflect what you've seen.
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How in the world do you "switch off algorithms"? Even sort by new or purely random content is still an algorithm. Not to mention, if you switch to something like sort by new, that's even easier to manipulate. Just have bot accounts flood the feeds with whatever propaganda they want to push.
This is a good idea in spirit, but until I see the actual legislation, I feel like this could very easily end up in the category of geriatric politicians completely failing their attempts at legislating tech.
Read the article.
This was what came to my mind as well, however Google does let you turn off your history for YouTube and when you do that (as I do) it just shows a blank page when you go there, so that's one way it can be done.
Nobody does it because everybody likes to pretend they don't like the crack until they have to go without. I do it on principle because YouTube has single-handedly changed a particular member of my family, one of the most innocuous people in the world, to someone who has loathsome opinions. I hate it a lot and don't want that for myself. I am on no social media that serves up anything based on your previous clicking behavior.
On Youtube you can just click on subscriptions and it only shows content from channels you're subscribed to. If you make some effort to curate the channels you're subscribed to, there will be some pretty good content there.
To me, this should be the default page with the recommendation algorithm being an "explore" option to find some other channels to subscribe to.
The big problem with social media is you have millions of people competing with each other to grab attention. If the goal were instead to convince people to subscribe to their channel, people might actually put some effort into creating better content instead of trying to be the first to get out their hot take on whatever is going on. If they adjusted their interface to start up on the subscription feed, and have an explore feed which show maybe ten channels that have had a lot of subscriptions recently, it would probably solve a lot of problems with shit shit tier troll content dominating social media.
and when you do that (as I do) it just shows a blank page when you go there, so that's one way it can be done.
I think it also only suggests videos based on the one you're currently watching too, or maybe your current session.
I also mostly do it out of principle because I used YouTube a lot before watch history was even a thing, and I don't care for the shitty front page suggestions it disables anyway.
It makes good headlines
Algorithm off implies a lot of parameters about the user which could be disabled. Right now there are thousands of parameters being used to curate content to you. With it off you could get true random content which in theory should allow for you to not get sucked into the dopamine trap.
So what does that mean? No posts? Sort by newest? (Wouldn't be too bad actually)
Over fucking due.
Now, if there were a site that we could design our own algorithms, that would be gold. Just want to see your friends? Cool, press that button. Just want to shop for your next adventure? Cool, press that button. Looking for fun things to do over the weekend? Cool, push that button. I want to buy stuff, I just want to see everything available and not have it shoved down my throat.
The easiest way this could work would be allowing you to group your subscriptions manually or automatically tagging them into preset categories (which would still use AI technically). It's not really feasible to create an endless number of shitty algorithms that probably won't give you exactly what you want.
It's what they had on reddit or even your bookmarks. You just tag what category they are and then get those categories or browse theirs.
Good .... all social media should be heavily regulated and controlled everywhere. Social media has become as integrated and influential in our lives like newspapers and television and radio once were ... they heavily regulated those media in the past, they should do the same for all social media everywhere now.
Right now, its basically just the wild west and governments are always playing catch up or just blindly being controlled by the corporations behind all social media
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I wonder if its to late. Are people so addicted they will turn it back on after a few weeks?
Sounds like Australian based VPN nodes will get a lot more popular...
This will have zero impact on the power of tech companies. Most people will just choose the algorithm, it’s just better. The only way to actually have impact is to allow people to know how their feed works and to change the algorithm.
Banning Social Media for Teens and THEN going and regulating how the social media companies work their algorithms.
That is like driving on a flat tire for a week and then saying "We should do something about fixing the flat tire" except you are the ones who flattened your tire on purpose in the first place.
Absolute MORONS!!!
Better late than never
OK, but this is shutting the stable doors after the horses got out kind of better, not "we needed this earlier and are getting it after some things went wrong" better.
Hmm, honestly. If you didn't like it, just block it and replace.
This will work a lot better once everyone is on FOSS platforms and network effects are less of a problem.
Ban all social media that isnt the fediverse. Decentralized and no algirithm. Seems solid to me.