Everybody hates clickbait. It misrepresents scientific studies, it creates endless comedy fodder, and just generally annoys people. In fact, the only people who seemingly hate clickbait more than the entire internet, which reads it anyway, is Facebook. And Facebook has decided to try and put an end to it once and for all.
The Verge is reporting on Facebook’s next round in the Clickbait Wars, which involves the social network shutting down two types of titles. The first is the “curiosity gap,” as in “You Won’t Believe Who Ate A Baby At The Oscars,” and the second is outright misleading headlines, a good example of which can be found on any study that reports on what will give you cancer. Facebook is essentially going to analyze publishers’ headlines and, the more clickbaity they get, the more their reach will be intentionally limited on the site.
The site claims that this is to sort the wheat from chaff, or rather articles with genuine meat from spam, based on user feedback. On the other hand, considering the site is shoving Pages down the feed to boost your friends’ posts, this does seem an odd choice. But it’s not like Facebook would try to use its popularity to make it impossible for news media to access its users without paying for the privilege, right? That would just be silly!
(Via The Verge)