Facebook is escalating its war on “spammy” and misleading clickbait, a fight that began two years ago, in the fall of 2014.
For those unacquainted with the term clickbait, it refers to URL links shared via social media that contain provocative descriptions designed simply to attract visitors to a web page.
Facebook clearly despises clickbait because it directs people away from its platform to external websites. If unsatisfied, they quickly return to continue perusing their friends’ posts. This type of user behavior helped Facebook identify clickbait in the past.
Now, the social network is updating its algorithm once more to ascertain phrases commonly used in clickbait headlines, and the web domains and pages they originate from. Facebook describes the system as similar to an email spam filter. Consequently, if a publication or website is identified as a repeat clickbait offender, then its links will appear lower on the News Feed. If the same culprit puts a halt to their clickbait content, their posts will stop being affected by the change. – READ MORE