On its newsroom page, Facebook stated that it will now prioritise articles by headlines. Facebook’s new algorithm is made to filter fishy Clickbait-y titles out of the feed. The blog further says,“withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate the article to create misleading expectations”. These are just a few examples of how Clickbait headlines. It counts as the second attempt by Facebook to banish Clickbait articles from the news feed. Interestingly, in August 2014, the website declared changes to its newsfeed based on the amount of time people spent on a post. Based on its study, it started punishing publishers who used Clickbait headlines to accumulate clicks. On the blog post, Facebook also said,“If [users] click through to a link and then come straight back to Facebook, it suggests that they didn’t find something they wanted,” Facebook investigated thousands of headlines, judging as “clickbait” those that purposely keep critical information and those that practice misrepresentation to trick the reader. Publishers who “consistently” post clickbait articles will face punishment by getting an inferior position in the newsfeed. If publishers discontinue using clickbait titles, they will not be penalised. In case you want to explore the world of clickbait articles, here is an entire Reddit thread dedicated to them.
