YouTube declares war on ‘blatant clickbait’ video

YouTube has vowed to step up efforts to combat “blatant clickbait,” especially videos that highlight—or pretend to highlight—breaking news and current events. The site considers clickbait a video “in which the title or thumbnail promises viewers something that the video does not provide.” According to YouTube, such videos make viewers “feel deceived, disappointed or even misled.”

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YouTube noted that users come to the site in search of truthful and timely information on important issues, and not everyone is able to distinguish between clickbait videos and skip them, and some people do not even see the difference between clickbait and normal content.

Examples of clickbait, according to YouTube, are videos in which the title says one thing, but in fact there is not a word about it. Misleading thumbnails are also considered clickbait. If the thumbnail says “top economic news” and the video does not contain any economic news, then it will also be subject to force blocking.

YouTube’s fight against clickbait videos will begin in India; which countries will be next is still unknown. For now, the service will remove any videos that violate the new policy without issuing warnings. After processing already posted content, priority will be given to checking new uploads in order to prevent clickbait media content from being published on the platform in the first place.