What Twitter/X Suggestions Actually Are (and Why They're Everywhere)
X injects suggestions into your feed in at least four distinct formats in 2026:
- Who to Follow cards — appear every 4–6 posts in both the Following and For You tabs
- Suggested posts — tweets from accounts you don't follow, inserted mid-scroll based on engagement signals
- Topic suggestions — recommended topics under Explore, pre-checked by default
- Trending now modules — location-based or personalized trending lists that push engagement spikes
All of these are driven by the same underlying system: X's recommendation graph. It reads your likes, your retweets, your follows, your mutes, and even how long you pause on a tweet, then builds a model of what content keeps you on-platform longest.
The uncomfortable truth: the more you interact — even negatively, like pressing 'Not interested' — the more data you feed the algorithm. X's own engineering blog has confirmed that negative feedback signals still contribute to engagement modeling. So muting a suggestion isn't the clean break it feels like. It's more like telling a salesman you're not interested: they note it, adjust, and come back with a different angle.
Understanding this is step one. The sections below walk through every mute lever available, then explain why deleting old behavioral signals is the only durable fix.
How to Mute 'Who to Follow' Suggestions on X
X doesn't offer a single toggle to kill all suggestions, but you can reduce their frequency significantly with these steps:
- On the card itself — tap the three-dot menu on any 'Who to Follow' card, then select Dismiss. X will hide that specific account for a while.
- Via Settings — go to Settings → Privacy and Safety → Content you see. Disable 'Show content in this location' to suppress geo-based suggestions.
- Mute specific accounts — open any profile, tap the three-dot menu, select Mute @username. Muted accounts no longer appear in suggestions or in your feed.
- Mute keywords — Settings → Privacy and Safety → Mute and block → Muted words. Add terms associated with the suggestion clusters you keep seeing (e.g., specific hashtags, topic words).
One realistic caveat: X refreshes its suggestion pool every 24–72 hours. Dismiss 10 accounts today, and 10 new ones will rotate in by Monday. The cards won't disappear entirely unless X changes its monetization model — which, given that 'Who to Follow' drives follower growth for paying verified accounts, is unlikely.
For a deeper clean on what X uses to pick those suggestions, your retweet history is a major signal source. Mass-clearing retweets with X Cleaner removes hundreds or thousands of data points from the recommendation graph in one session.
How to Mute Topic Suggestions and the For You Tab
The 'For You' tab is X's most aggressive suggestion surface. By default, it mixes tweets from followed accounts with recommended content from strangers. Here's how to reduce the noise:
- Unfollow topics — go to Explore → Topics, then tap any topic you're following and select Unfollow. Repeat for every pre-selected topic X added on your behalf.
- Switch to Following tab as default — on mobile, long-press the Following tab and pin it. This doesn't kill For You, but it changes your launch behavior.
- Use 'Not interested in this post' — three-dot menu on any suggested post. Effective short-term, but feeds the algorithm (see above).
- Mute specific topics by keyword — Settings → Muted words. Add the topic name or hashtag. This suppresses tweets containing that word across all tabs.
A practical example: if X keeps suggesting crypto content because you liked 3 posts in 2024 during a price spike, muting keywords like 'Bitcoin', 'ETH', and 'crypto' will cut most of it. But the root signal — those old likes — stays in your data profile. Deleting those likes with X Cleaner removes the signal at the source, which is more reliable than whack-a-mole keyword muting.
Note: X Premium ($8–$22/month depending on tier) doesn't remove suggestions, despite what some posts claim. Premium subscribers still see suggested content — they just get a lower ad frequency in certain tabs.
Muting vs. Blocking vs. Removing Suggestions: What Actually Works
These three actions sound similar but behave very differently:
- Mute — hides the account from your feed and notifications. They can still see your tweets, follow you, and interact. You won't see their content, but the suggestion algorithm can still rotate them back after its refresh cycle.
- Block — prevents mutual visibility. The blocked account can't see your profile or tweets (when logged in). X's system treats blocked accounts as stronger negative signals and is less likely to suggest them or their followers.
- Dismiss suggestion — a soft signal. Tells X 'not this account right now' but doesn't persist across algorithm resets.
For suggestions you keep seeing repeatedly, blocking is more durable than muting. For general feed cleanup, neither replaces clearing the behavioral data X uses to generate those suggestions in the first place.
One underrated approach: if your account has accumulated years of likes and retweets, those interactions are active inputs to X's recommendation model right now. Deleting old tweets that got high engagement also removes some of the topic-clustering data X uses to profile your interests. X Cleaner processes up to 3,200 deletions per hour — so clearing a multi-year backlog is realistic in a single afternoon session.
Why Muting Alone Doesn't Fix Your Feed Long-Term
Here's the core problem: muting is a filter applied on top of X's recommendation output. It doesn't change the input — which is your behavioral history on the platform.
X's algorithm considers dozens of signals when generating suggestions:
- Your entire like history (public since 2024)
- Your retweet and quote tweet history
- Accounts you've followed and unfollowed
- Content you've bookmarked
- Search queries inside the app
- Time spent viewing specific content types
Every mute rule you add sits downstream of this data. You're fighting the output while the inputs stay intact. That's why users who diligently press 'Not interested' on every suggestion for weeks still report seeing the same types of content — because the behavioral graph hasn't changed.
The more effective long-term strategy is to reduce the behavioral footprint X has on you. That means clearing old likes that reflect interests you've moved on from, removing retweets from accounts you no longer want to be associated with, and purging DMs that X uses for conversation-context modeling. X Cleaner handles all of these in one tool — free, no API key required, running entirely in your browser with no data sent to third-party servers.
Visit the X Cleaner blog for specifics on which data types have the strongest impact on X's recommendation graph.
Step-by-Step: Reset Your X Algorithm Profile
If you want to start fresh with a feed that actually reflects your current interests, here's a concrete workflow:
- Audit your follows — use X's own following list to unfollow accounts you haven't engaged with in 6+ months. Fewer follows = more focused suggestion pool.
- Unfollow all topics — Explore → Topics → Following. Unfollow every topic X auto-subscribed you to. This removes a major suggestion input.
- Clear old likes — likes are now public on X. They also directly fuel the 'You might like' suggestion clusters. Use X Cleaner's like deletion to mass-remove them. At 3,200 per hour, a 10,000-like backlog clears in about 3 hours.
- Remove old retweets — retweet history signals your amplification preferences to X's graph. Delete retweets from accounts or topics you no longer want influencing your suggestions.
- Set fresh keyword mutes — after clearing behavioral data, add targeted keyword mutes for any topic clusters that still bleed through.
- Switch to Following tab by default — lock in the chronological feed as your primary surface.
This process doesn't require X Premium, doesn't need an API key, and doesn't require you to delete your account. It's a targeted reset that works within X's existing structure. X Cleaner is free to install and runs the heavy lifting steps (bulk like removal, retweet deletion) directly in Chrome — no data leaves your browser.
Advanced: Muting Suggestions for Specific Use Cases
Different users have different suggestion problems. Here are targeted fixes for common scenarios:
Brand accounts and community managers: X frequently suggests competitors or brand-adjacent accounts to your followers as 'similar accounts.' You can't control what X suggests to others, but you can keep your own feed clean by muting competitor keywords and unfollowing topic tags in your niche. Clearing your like history via X Cleaner also prevents X from categorizing your account into competitive niches based on what your own team has liked.
Privacy-focused users: X's suggestions can inadvertently reveal your interests to anyone who looks at your 'For You' tab on a shared device. Clearing likes and bookmarks removes the behavioral basis for these inferences. X Cleaner's bookmark deletion and like deletion handle both in batch.
Users returning after a break: if you've been off X for months, the algorithm surfaces 'catch-up' suggestions based on old behavioral data. This is often the worst suggestion experience because the data is stale. A quick bulk-delete of old likes (anything older than 6 months) resets the algorithm's starting point faster than waiting for the model to decay naturally.
Accounts switching focus: if you used to tweet about one topic and now tweet about another, X's suggestion graph lags. Your old likes and retweets keep anchoring you to the old topic cluster. Batch-deleting those interactions with X Cleaner is the fastest way to shift your algorithmic identity on the platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you permanently turn off 'Who to Follow' suggestions on X?
Not completely. X doesn't offer a global toggle to disable 'Who to Follow' cards as of 2026 — they're part of its monetization for verified accounts. You can dismiss individual suggestions, mute specific accounts, and reduce suggestion frequency by unfollowing topics and clearing behavioral data like likes and retweets. X Cleaner makes that last step practical at scale, processing up to 3,200 interactions per hour.
Does muting suggestions affect who can see my profile?
No. Muting a suggestion or dismissing a 'Who to Follow' card is entirely one-directional — it only affects what you see. The account you muted or dismissed can still view your profile, follow you, reply to your tweets, and see your likes if they're public. To prevent mutual visibility, you'd need to block the account, not mute it.
Why do the same types of suggestions keep coming back after I mute them?
Because muting filters the output without changing the input. X's algorithm reads your like history, retweets, bookmarks, and follow patterns to regenerate suggestions every 24–72 hours. Dismiss 10 crypto accounts today, and X will rotate in 10 more based on the same underlying behavioral data. The durable fix is removing those behavioral signals — specifically old likes and retweets — using a bulk tool like X Cleaner.
Does X use my likes to decide which accounts to suggest to me?
Yes, directly. Your like history is one of X's primary inputs for its recommendation graph. Since X made likes public in 2024, they're also visible to anyone viewing your profile. Accounts you've liked get weighted more heavily in 'Who to Follow' and 'For You' suggestion clusters. Deleting those likes via X Cleaner removes the input, not just the output — which is why bulk like deletion has a stronger effect on suggestion quality than any mute setting.
Does X Premium remove suggested posts and 'Who to Follow' cards?
No. As of 2026, X Premium (Basic at $3/month, Premium at $8/month, Premium+ at $22/month) reduces ad frequency in certain contexts but does not eliminate 'Who to Follow' cards or suggested posts from the For You tab. Suggestions remain active across all subscription tiers. The only reliable way to reduce them is through muting settings combined with clearing behavioral data.
How long does it take to clear enough data to see a difference in suggestions?
Most users report a noticeable shift in suggestion quality within 3–7 days after bulk-deleting likes and retweets. X's recommendation model refreshes periodically, and once it has less behavioral data to work from, the suggestion clusters become more generic. X Cleaner processes up to 3,200 deletions per hour, so clearing a multi-year backlog of likes typically takes a single afternoon — and the algorithm reset follows within the week.