YouTube introducing changes to give people more control over recommended videos

YouTube is introducing changes to two crucial browsing features as concerns grow over harmful content spreading through the platform’s recommendation algorithm.

Sortable topics and filtering capabilities are being added to YouTube’s homepage and “up next” recommended categories, according to a new blog post. The goal is to give users more control over what they see on the site. People will have the ability to click on certain topics they want to explore, like DIY crafts or music videos, from the top of the homepage. The same type of filtering applies to “up next,” which will allow users to more specifically curate what type of videos they want to see as recommendations and which creators they want to see videos from. Similar product changes were first rumored earlier this year.

YouTube is also giving people more control over the type of videos they don’t want to see. This includes content that is irrelevant to their interests that might have otherwise been recommended by the company’s algorithm. A new option called “Don’t recommend channel” will soon be available for people to click in order to hide content from a specific creator or brand. Those videos and creators are still discoverable on the platform, according to the blog post, but they won’t surface in the recommended tab or homepage.

New transparency tools being rolled out with the update will show people why certain videos or creators are being recommended, too.

“Sometimes, we recommend videos from channels you haven’t seen before based on what other viewers with similar interests have liked and watched in the past,” Essam El-Dardiry, product manager at YouTube, wrote in the blog post. “Our goal is to explain why these videos surface on your homepage in order to help you find videos from new channels you might like.”

:story: The Verge