Nobody likes clickbait websites, not even Facebook. The social media company has been battling these “news providers” for almost two years now, but clickbait sites has somehow managed to persevere despite Facebook’s actions. However, these websites may have their days numbered, as Facebook has stated that it would be scaling up its efforts in combating clickbait sites.
While the specifics about how Facebook will be combating clickbait is unclear, the company has stated that it will be looking specifically for headlines that appear to either withhold information or are misleading. The system behind this is stated to work similar to an e-mail’s spam filter. Once Facebook’s algorithm manages to identify certain phrases, these stories or pages will automatically appear lower in your News Feed. This algorithm would be tweaked and improved upon over time, allowing it to be more efficient and accurate over time.
“We’ve head from people that they specifically want to see fewer stories with clickbait headlines or link titles. With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and more of the stories they want to see higher up in their feeds,” says Facebook in a blog post.
Source: Engadget, Facebook Newsroom
