Guess what happened next: Facebook battles 'clickbait'

05 August 2016, 12:00AM

Facebook is taking another stab at ridding users' news feeds of "clickbait," the links and headlines that ask readers to "guess what happened next" but don't provide any useful information, tempting people to click if they want to find out.

The world's largest social media company last tried this in 2014, when it announced that it was improving users' news feed to help them find what was "interesting and relevant" and weed out "spammy" stories.

It looks like that didn't work as well as it should have, though Facebook says it helped.

Facebook said on Thursday it is now using a system that identifies phrases commonly used in "clickbait" headlines. These range from "you'll never believe" to "guess what happened next?"

-AP

05 August 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>