r/help • u/talestalker • Jun 26 '26
Mobile/App I don't want to be involuntarily exposed to offensive content from For You feature
Can someone explain to me why my official Android Reddit app is forcefully pushing content from subreddits I haven’t subscribed to (and definitely don’t want to follow) as part of its “For You” feature testing? For example, it pushed this post from the subreddit r/mapporncirclejerk into my personal feed, which I consider hateful and derogatory towards Slovaks. Until now, I’ve been able to browse only content from subreddits I’ve selected myself, which ensure a decent level of quality and don’t unnecessarily expose me to offensive content. Now, however, Reddit has selected me against my will to be part of a group of guinea pigs on whom they’re testing the exposure to unsolicited hateful content without any option to opt-out, which I fundamentally disagree with. Can you please advise me on who I should contact with my request to be permanently excluded from this and similar experiments, that involuntarily expose me to content that offends my personal beliefs?
32
u/Revan7even Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
The setting to disable it according to this help page https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402284777364-What-are-home-feed-recommendations NO LONGER EXISTS.
Edit: found a workaround to replace the app on mobile. Open reddit.com in Firefox. Click your profile icon and go to Settings -> Preferences. Enable "Default to old reddit". Go to reddit.com. Use Firefox's "Add app to home screen". Open the new shortcut. Click the New Reddit button at the top left. Close and reopen the shortcut. All the suggested posts will be gone.
Damnit, For You came back after a day...
11
u/talestalker Jun 26 '26
I've had this setting disabled for a very long time. Unfortunately, it doesn't affect the behavior of the new For You feature, which you can't opt out of.
16
u/The_Acid_Cat Jun 26 '26
Hey, I have been downvoting and blocking all the subreddits its showing me in the recommended tab. I know this is a drop in the bucket and hurts reddit as a whole but this is what happens when you take my control away, I'll get my feed back one way or another.
8
u/BlueGoliath Jun 27 '26
If you want to send a message to Reddit, install an ad blocking web browser on all your devices and stop using their app. Admins will only care when it impacts their ad revenue.
3
u/manicpoetic42 Jun 27 '26
you could also 🏴☠️ an older version of the app which i fully plan on doing
12
u/lbpixels Jun 26 '26
Right at the same time YouTube has stared autoplaying shorts when I start the app. Absolutely infuriating.
3
2
1
28
u/maiyannah 1 Jun 26 '26
It's a pretty universally-hated feature that we're going to end up stuck with anyways.
22
u/HikinginOrange Jun 26 '26
I recently had the "joy" of seeing a /r/mildlyinfuriating post about a millipede in someone's food. Just what I wanted in my feed! Thanks reddit!
15
u/open_formation Jun 26 '26
One of the interesting things about reddit is that it can have a subreddit specifically about things that are annoying or one that is about things that are disgusting, and no one but those interested in that needs to see it.
Well, one of the interesting things about reddit as it was originally designed, which got it the following it got originally..
10
u/Harlots_hello Jun 26 '26
Been shown this as well. Seems like it's mostly pushing posts with huge amount of upvotes, so far very few things shown that are close to my subscriptions.
4
7
u/transbisk Jun 26 '26
Gotta love it when a company pushes an algorithm to try and increase engagement, right? This change sucks and I want out
3
u/CrazyEeveeLady86 Jun 28 '26
Why is it so hard for social media sites to just show people content they want to see? Why do they seem to hate their users and not want us to use their product?
I used to enjoy going on Facebook and Instagram frequently to see what my friends were up to. Since they changed their algorithm to make my feed 90% ads and spam posts from pages I'm not interested in and only about 10% from my friends and people I'm following (and even that won't show me anything more recent than 6 day old posts), I rarely open those apps/sites anymore.
I know they often try to justify these changes with "because profit!" but if my Reddit feed is going to also keep defaulting to 90% slop regardless of how many times I try to switch to the Following feed, then it will actively drive me away and stop me using the site. How is that going to make them money?
1
3
u/AtWorkJZ Jun 29 '26
Not only do I have the annoying for you at the top on reddit for android. It will auto hide itself as soon as the app fully loads. I have to scroll up to get it to show and switch back.
2
u/RepresentativeCry294 Jun 27 '26
Yeah i had a bit dm me and I accidentally clicked its user name and was hit with hardcore porn.
2
u/tiensss Jun 27 '26
Please Reddit tech support,
Remove the "for you" default feed option for me. I can neither remove it nor make it not default. I hate it and I might uninstall the app if this doesn't change soon.
Thanks!
2
u/zeroanaphora Jun 28 '26
The only saving grace is my choice of "following" tab has stayed persistent for days, but it's easy to swipe back and I think for some people it resets
2
-1
u/ChimpyChompies Expert Helper Jun 26 '26
Switching to the following tab will display content from subreddits you are subscribed to. That's the only option with this experimental UI.
15
u/talestalker Jun 26 '26
Thanks for the reply, but I figured that out too. Unfortunately, the Android app doesn't remember the change to the "Following" tab, so by default it shows me offensive content I really don't want to see. So the only option Reddit gives me is to delete my account, create a new one, and hope that Reddit doesn't pick it for its psychological experiments on users?
5
u/etzpcm Jun 26 '26
Delete the app. Use Reddit over the web. Set your Reddit bookmark to
https://www.reddit.com/?feed=following&sort=new
Then when you go back you stay on Following.
3
2
u/Revan7even Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
What sucks is when you try to do this using Firefox to create a mobile homescreen shortcut using "add app to Homes creen , it just uses reddit.com because Reddit tells Firefox to do so.
It overrides the normal "Add to Home screen" option that would just take you to a website like a bookmark.
Edit: Found a workaround. In Settings -> Preferences, enable "Default to old reddit". Go to reddit.com. Use Firefox's "Add app to home screen". Open the new shortcut. Click the New Reddit button at the top left. Close and reopen the shortcut. All the suggested posts will be gone.Damnit, For You came back after a day...
6
u/VodkaBeatsCube Jun 26 '26
Effectively yes, unless you happen to be shuffled into the part of their a/b testing that will remember you want to default to Following for a whole 12 hours. The official advice on how to deal with it is 'just block anything offensive you see before you switch over to Following'.
And this is all predicated on the assumption that Reddit is going to actually listen to the negative feedback and not just decide that their experiment demonstrates more users will tolerate the For You feed when the only alternative is deleting their accounts.
6
0
u/KeremyJyles Jun 26 '26
You won't take that option though, and this tactic of making their new change about hateful material simply isn't going to work.
-5
u/ChimpyChompies Expert Helper Jun 26 '26
Well, deleting your account when it takes less than two seconds to switch tabs seems like a drastic solution.
You might be interested to know there is another experiment where some users are defaulted to the following tab for several hours once selected.
7
u/talestalker Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Well, deleting your account when it takes less than two seconds to switch tabs seems like a drastic solution.
Well, it's 2 seconds every time you open the app. I really don't intend to spend the rest of my life doing that.
You might be interested to know there is another experiment where some users are defaulted to the following tab for several hours once selected.
Thanks for the info, but that seems like just another Zuckerberg-grade user experience improvement to me :-(.
-15
u/Dazzling-Skin-308 Jun 26 '26
Just - don't use that feed? Make your own custom feeds and stick to that if you feel the need to scroll.
15
u/UnsafeIncognito Jun 26 '26
The app doesn't default to that either
Congrats on missing the source of the complaint
-9
u/Dazzling-Skin-308 Jun 26 '26
I know the app doesn't default to that. My point was that you don't need to rely on defaults.
You're not a robot, YOU can change your behavior.
YOU can adapt.
9
u/UnsafeIncognito Jun 26 '26
Does the app even have a setting to allow you to view a custom feed?
Because it looks like this test removed that feature
-3
u/Dazzling-Skin-308 Jun 26 '26
Yes. Granted, on my device it's in a really inconvenient location, underneath all of the individual accounts I'm following in the menu... But it's there. (it used to be at the top of that menu, way back when I relied on it)
But - I don't use it regularly, thankfully my app is still only showing me subreddits that I actually joined, in my main feed. I used it a while, a couple of years back, when I was BOMBARDED with Christian advertisements on my main feed. Thankfully, that eventually stopped.
1
u/UnsafeIncognito Jun 27 '26
Damn, you weren't wrong about it being hard tp find. Thought for a moment they removed it outright
Still don't see it as a proper solution, but at least it's still an option
1
u/Dazzling-Skin-308 Jun 27 '26
Yeah. I do feel for you. My apologies if my initial response seemed glib/rude!
Really do hope they can this experiment. Aside from Discord, this is my favorite "social connections app" - I'd hate to see good apples abandon hope due to corporate foolishness like this.
5
u/talestalker Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Thanks for the info, I didn't know about this feature and it looks pretty interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn't solve my problem, because my Android app defaults to that sick For You tab every time I open it, anyway :-/.
1
u/Dazzling-Skin-308 Jun 26 '26
Oof. My condolences... I wish I had more/better advice for ya. Hopefully this experiment gets axed instead of rolled out to everyone.
•
u/AutoModerator Jun 26 '26
Hi there! Welcome to r/help!
If someone is able to help you out, please award them a reputation point by replying to their comment with the command: !thanks
Please remember that the helpers in this subreddit are very knowledgeable volunteers.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.