Unfollow Recommendations on User-Generated Content Platforms: A Game-Theoretic Analysis

As consumer engagement with user-generated content (UGC) platforms such as Twitter and Instagram continues to grow, managing users’ following feeds becomes increasingly challenging. Users often lose track of their preferred content, leading to disengagement when they encounter less relevant content, which, in turn, negatively impacts platform profitability. To address this issue, some platforms have introduced unfollow recommendation features aimed at helping users unfollow less relevant creators. This paper employs a game-theoretic framework to examine the impact of unfollow recommendations on key stakeholders in the UGC ecosystem, particularly focusing on content consumers, creators, and platforms. Our findings suggest that while unfollow recommendations can boost user engagement, they may also discourage content production among creators, potentially lowering platform revenue. These findings carry significant implications for all key stakeholders within the UGC ecosystem.