You’ve probably tried it. The feed gets stuck on breakups, doom or whatever you watched once at 2 a.m., so you look for a way to start over.
TikTok offers one. It’s called Algo Refresh, and it promises to reset your recommendations so you can steer away from content you don’t want.
According to newly unsealed court filings, some users who pressed it got a placebo instead.
What the filings say
New York Attorney General Letitia James first sued TikTok in 2024. An amended complaint, filed under seal in August and made public this month, alleges that in 2023 TikTok ran tests in which some users received a version of Algo Refresh that didn’t work. They believed their feeds had been reset. They hadn’t.
The complaint says thousands of users were in that group, including teenagers and children. It also says TikTok tracked how the tests affected time spent in the app and ad revenue.
Not everyone inside TikTok was comfortable with it. According to the filing, a product manager on the company’s Digital Well Being team objected in an internal chat: “This feature is about algorithm transparency and control. A placebo group completely conflicts with that.”
TikTok disputes the lawsuit’s description. A company spokesperson told Reuters that TikTok regularly tests new features and that the complaint paints a false picture of how Algo Refresh works.
What changed
Testing features on some users and not others is normal in tech. Companies do it all the time.
What’s different here is which feature. Algo Refresh exists to give users control over what they see. If the filings are accurate, TikTok tested whether users would notice the control was fake, and measured what that meant for the business.
That changes how users can trust these tools. A reset button is only useful if it does what it says.
The bigger fight
TikTok is facing lawsuits from more than two dozen states that accuse it of designing the app to hook young users. In September, it agreed to pay Alabama up to $300 million to settle the first of those cases headed for trial. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal have also sent the company written questions about a separate test.
New York’s case is ongoing. TikTok has denied the state’s claims.
What you can do
- Don’t count on the reset button alone. Long-pressing a video and choosing “Not interested” sends a direct signal to the algorithm.
- Check the settings on a teen’s account. Screen-time limits and content filters are worth reviewing, and they don’t depend on the algorithm cooperating.
- Notice how the app feels, not just what it shows you. If it keeps pulling you back to content that makes you feel worse, that tells you something.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Sources: New York Attorney General’s amended complaint against TikTok, as reported by Reuters and The Next Web, Oct. 2026.