Reddit’s forced ‘For You’ tab experiment is live, and even uBlock Origin can't save you

Reddit is forcing a new algorithmic feed on its mobile web and desktop users. A current site experiment traps people on a “For You” tab instead of showing their subscribed communities. Every time you open the site or refresh the page you have to manually click over to the “Following” tab to see the content you actually want.

I tried to reproduce this behavior on my own devices and couldn’t trigger the change. A Reddit admin confirmed the experiment in the bugs subreddit and admitted users have no way to change their default landing page back to the Following feed. So that explains why I couldn’t force it on my end.

People are obviously furious about the change, and rightfully so. Users are complaining that the For You tab pushes content from random communities they never joined or actively chose to leave. Several people in the feedback threads threatened to stop using the site completely if the forced algorithmic feed becomes a permanent feature.

There’s still a bit of good news though. The classic Old Reddit site remains totally unaffected by this test. 

But folks who want to remain on the standard Reddit experience did try to find workarounds. Some went straight to the uBlock Origin subreddit to ask if a custom filter could automatically redirect the page. They expected the ad blocker to easily squash the new layout.

I spotted a comment from a uBlock Origin team member explaining why a quick fix is completely off the table. The developer noted that Reddit relies heavily on Shadow DOM architecture. This makes it incredibly hard to inspect and manipulate the underlying page elements with standard ad blocking tools.

Mobile browsers also restrict access to the DOM inspector. This blocks extension developers from easily digging into the site code on phones to find a working solution. The biggest hurdle is that the URL simply doesn’t change when you swap between the For You and Following feeds.

You can’t just redirect the browser to a specific Following URL because a separate URL doesn’t exist. The developer explained that a filter designed to automatically click the Following button would be highly unreliable. The site updates dynamically and the click script would likely only fire once when the page initially loads.

The uBlock Origin team did float one partial workaround to clean up the mess. You might be able to create a custom filter that hides any post displaying a “Join” button. This would theoretically scrub the new algorithmic suggestions from the For You feed and leave behind the posts from communities you already follow.

That fix only cleans up the visual clutter rather than reverting the layout change itself. Users stuck in the test group are entirely out of luck right now. They have to deal with the forced suggestions until Reddit decides to pull the plug on the experiment.

We stand out from the tech-media crowd because we break news stories; we mainly bring you stuff that you won’t find anywhere in the mainstream tech media. Our stories have been picked up by some of the world’s most popular websites and media outlets—more info is available here.