The recent school shooting in Vantaa has sparked a wave of content on social media, with Tiktok being particularly popular among young people. The platform is flooded with shooting-related videos, and its recommendation algorithms only serve to amplify this content, even if users are not actively searching for it.
The algorithms used by social media platforms are not fully transparent, but it is clear that they favor provocative and emotional content. These platforms have also been criticized for leading young users into harmful content, such as those who idealize thinness to dangerous levels.
Despite promises from platforms to moderate and hide harmful content related to shootings or mental health issues, parents play a crucial role in supervising their children’s online activities. The EU’s digital service regulation aims to protect user safety and hold digital giants accountable for the content published on their platforms, with a particular focus on protecting underage users.
Sitra, Finland’s independence celebration fund, has provided instructions on how to adjust the personalized feed on different social media platforms. While turning off personalization can be a complex process on most platforms, some like LinkedIn allow default personalization options. Each platform has its own way of managing personalized content, but some like Snapchat and Pinterest received weaker grades from Sitra for their user experience in this regard. Personalizing feeds can also be challenging on platforms like YouTube and X.
Tiktok gives users the option to permanently turn off personalization, but they still see popular content based on their location and language preferences. The platform does not disclose how it defines content popularity, so turning off personalization may not prevent popular but potentially harmful content from surfacing. Snapchat and Pinterest were identified as having the weakest controls over personalization algorithms, making it difficult for users to manage their feeds effectively.
