Douyin Users Complain After Algorithm Appears to 'Forget' Their Tastes

Users of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, complained that the short-video app’s recommendation system appeared to malfunction, after many said their feeds were suddenly filled with irrelevant content such as health tips, AI-generated dramas, old movie explainers and military videos.

Several related hashtags, including “Douyin recommendations are bad,” “Douyin service abnormality” and “Where is my information cocoon?” trended on Chinese social media yesterday, as users reported unusual recommendation behavior from the evening of August 31 into the next day.

According to Sina Tech, the main problem appeared to be a sharp mismatch between recommended videos and users’ usual Interest tags. Some users who normally watched anime, pet videos or daily vlogs said they were suddenly pushed large amounts of wellness content, AI short dramas and other videos they had little interest in, joking that they had accidentally entered a “middle-aged and elderly channel.”

Some users said the problem persisted even after they marked videos as “not interested,” while others said restarting the app did not help. The issue appeared to affect only some accounts while others remained normal.

Some users said the unusual recommendations reminded them how dependent they had become on algorithmic filtering. The hashtag “Where is my information cocoon?” reflected a mix of humor and frustration, as users joked that they missed the familiar bubble of content tailored to their preferences.

Pear Video reported that Douyin customer service said yesterday that it had received user feedback and was treating the matter seriously. The platform said it was urgently investigating the issue and asked users to wait for further updates.

Douyin had not disclosed the specific cause of the recommendation disruption, according to the available reports.