TikTok says it has different recommendations for you to avoid harmful content holes

The company said today that TikTok is tweaking its For You page algorithm to prevent users from watching multiple videos that could be harmful if viewed in a cluster. The goal is to wean users away from groups of videos that "may reinforce a negative personal experience", listing excessive dieting, sadness and breakup content as examples.

"At TikTok, we believe that too much of anything, be it animals, fitness tips, or personal wellness trips, doesn't fit with a diverse search experience," the company said in its release. The For You feed uses metrics such as how long a viewer stays on content to recommend a video.

TikTok's personalized recommendation algorithm has been the subject of scrutiny. An investigation by The Wall Street Journal showed how the app can push young users down the rabbit hole of sex and drugs, showing similar content over and over again. Health experts say more research is needed on the app, which crossed 1 billion monthly users in September.

The company also announced that it is working on features that will allow users more ways to customize content that is not shown to them. Users will be able to choose hashtags and words related to the content they don't want to see on the For You feed. Users already have the option to indicate that they are not interested in a video, and TikTok says similar content will be shown less frequently.