Facebook changes News Feed to detect “clickbait” headlines

Facebook is now taking extensive measures to filter out clickbait headlines from its News Feed. Such headlines create misleading expectations for readers.

According to the company, people have asked that they specifically want to see fewer stories with clickbait headlines or link titles, such as, “When She Looked under Her Couch Cushions and Saw THIS… I Was SHOCKED!”; “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe”; or “The Dog Barked At The Deliveryman And His Reaction Was Priceless.”

Facebook is using a system that identifies phrases that are commonly used in clickbait headlines. It will categorize tens of thousands of headlines as clickbait by two key points namely, Facebook will see if the headline withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is while secondly, it will check f the headline exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader.

Alex Peysakhovich, Research Scientist and Kristin Hendrix, User Experience Researcher says that earlier, Facebook made an update to its News Feed that reduced the distribution of posts, that lead people to click and then quickly come back to News Feed. While this update helped, Facebook still sees Pages rely on clickbait headlines. He added, “People are still telling us they would prefer to see clearly written headlines that help them decide how they want to spend their time and not waste time on what they click.”