Get ready for a version of TikTok you’ve never seen before! Without the hyper-sticky, AI-driven ‘For You’ feed…

The video sharing platform has announced that TikTok users in the European Union will “soon” be able to switch off its infamously engaging content-selection algorithm as it prepares to comply with the bloc’s updated digital rulebook.

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) puts a requirement on popular platforms like TikTok to offer users the choice to see content recommendations that are not based on tracking and profiling their activity on the platform — a surveillance-based practice platforms typically refer to as “personalization”. So the incoming choice for users in Europe to see a non-personalized ‘For You’ feed on TikTok is part of the its preparations to comply with the bloc’s rebooted digital rules.

TikTok also recently announced the launch of its first ever ads transparency library (initially only for ads running in Europe) and a regional extension to its research API — also as it preps to hit its DSA compliance deadline later this month (August 28).Back in April the EU named TikTok as one of 19 so-called very large online platforms or search engines. The regulation requires these popular platforms provide users with a choice to switch off recommender systems based on profiling. VLOPs and VLOSE must also report on (and mitigate) algorithmic risk, as the EU dials up accountability around the use of AI by platform giants.

The incoming algo choice for TikTok users in Europe means that instead of seeing content in their For You and Live feeds that has been algorithmically selected for stickiness, based on what the platform’s AI has assessed will most engage them based on tracking all the other stuff they’ve looked at on the platform, users will be able to opt out of its surveillance-based attention targeting.

Those that choose to give TikTok’s eyeball-hogging AI the heave-ho will see For You and Live feeds populated by videos that are popular in their “region” and “preferred language”, per the company.

The DSA requirement that it offer a choice to deny personalization means further changes will apply for those that deny its profiling and AI-powered content sorting.