Skip to main content

TikTok adds Twitter- and Instagram-like content control tools

It’s been said that other platforms have been mimicking TikTok’s coolest features, but now it looks like the popular short-form video app is learning from its social media predecessors as well. TikTok is rolling out a few new content control features and they remind us of the sort of content controls you’d see on other platforms like Twitter and Instagram.

On Wednesday, TikTok announced the rollout of three new content curation and control features: content filters, age restrictions on content, and limiting content recommendations for certain topics.

 

Content filters, based on specific topics aren’t new. If you’re a Twitter user, you know all about content filters, but you probably know them best as “muted words.” TikTok is adding a similar feature to its own app. According to their blog post, TikTok is adding a tool “people can use to automatically filter out videos with words or hashtags they don’t want to see from their For You or Following feeds.”

Recommended Videos

The examples given in their announcement reflect filtering out milder, less-controversial topics that people might not want to see, such as “DIY tutorials” (if users are no longer interested in them) or fewer animal-product-based recipe videos (if a user is transitioning to a plant-based diet). But hopefully, this new content filter feature also means that TikTok users can avoid being surprised by a video on their FYP that features a more serious topic that they find particularly distressing.

Plus, it would be nice if TikTok’s new content filters were more effective at filtering out content than Twitter’s muted words, especially if you’re trying to avoid spoilers on your favorite show. And it is annoying when you go to the trouble of setting up the filter only for your feed to ignore it and show you that topic anyway. This feature is expected to be available “in the coming weeks.”

TikTok also mentioned adding new age restrictions on content that they call Content Levels. Basically, it’s a way for TikTok to categorize content “based on thematic maturity.” So content that has “overtly mature themes” will be given “a maturity score” that then stops it from being viewed by TikTok users ages 13 to 17.

TikTok’s decision to add this kind of control seems indicative of a larger trend in social media, especially when you consider apps like Instagram have also recently pushed for more age verification (to create more age-appropriate experiences for its users) and other mature content settings, like IG’s recently expanded Sensitive Content Control (which minors can’t use to increase their access mature content). According to GIFs shared by TikTok, the Content Levels feature will simply say a given age-restricted video is “unavailable” and will further describe it as “age-protected.”

And lastly, TikTok said that it will also be limiting content recommendations for certain topics “that may be fine as a single video but potentially problematic if viewed repeatedly.” Examples given of such topics included “dieting” and “extreme fitness.” So basically, you may still see such content recommendations but they’ll show up less often to make room for other topics so that you aren’t watching the same type of video over and over again about topics that could be harmful the more you watch them. Instagram recently rolled out its own take on a feature that could help curb the same issue.

That version, however, is targeted toward teens and works by providing in-app “nudges” that suggest looking at a new topic if a user has been viewing posts on the same topic in Explore for a while.

Anita George
Anita George has been writing for Digital Trends' Computing section since 2018. So for almost six years, Anita has written…
Thanks to Tapbots’ Ivory app, I’m finally ready to ditch Twitter for good
Profile displayed in Ivory app

Ever since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, it’s been one chaotic new thing after another. You literally cannot go a day (or a few days or even a week) without some stupid new change to the site — whether it’s about checkmarks for verified or Twitter Blue subscriber accounts, how links to other social networks are banned and then reversed, view counts on Tweets, or something else. I can’t keep up with every little thing that has happened since the beginning of November, and it feels like the spotlight is always on the toxicity of the site in general.

New Twitter alternatives have been popping up recently, but it seems that the most popular one continues to be Mastodon. I originally made a Mastodon account back in 2018 when it first launched, but it never clicked with me back then, and I eventually went back to Twitter. With the Musk mess, I tried going back to Mastodon, but again, it didn’t really click with me — until Tweetbot developer, Tapbots, revealed its next project: Ivory.
The significance of Tapbots and Tweetbot

Read more
What is Twitter Blue and is it worth it?
Twitter Blue menu option on a white screen background which is on a black background.

If you spend time on Twitter, you've probably heard the phrase "Twitter Blue" at some point and wondered what exactly it is. We're not talking about the signature shade of blue featured in its logo -- we're talking about the premium version of Twitter.

That's right. There's a paid tier for Twitter that many people don't even know exists that launched in July of 2021. And then relaunched again under Elon Musk's ownership in November 2022. Don't worry -- we'll explain everything below.
What is Twitter Blue?

Read more
What is Mastodon? Here’s why everyone’s talking about this Twitter alternative
Series of four mobile screenshots showing Mastodon's sign-up process.

By now you've no doubt heard about Mastodon. It's a social media platform that's been bandied about as an alternative to Twitter, particularly among users who aren't comfortable with the direction Twitter is going in now that Elon Musk is at the helm.

In fact, since Musk first announced that he was planning on buying the popular microblogging platform, Mastodon has garnered quite a bit of attention and experienced significant growth. But though you've likely heard about Mastodon, you may not be familiar with how it works or haven't decided whether or not it would be a good fit for you if you ever choose to leave Twitter and need an alternative social media platform. Don't worry. We've got you covered. In this guide, we'll get you up to speed on everything you need to know about social media's buzziest new platform.
What is Mastodon?

Read more