Youtube takes strong action against 'Clickbait' cases

YouTube is stepping up its crackdown on clickbait videos, which are videos that mislead viewers by their title and thumbnail. Starting in India, the platform will remove videos that use misleading titles and thumbnails to attract viewers, especially those related to breaking news and current events. The campaign will expand to other countries in the 'coming months.'

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Initially, YouTube will focus on removing egregious clickbait videos without penalizing creators, but once the policy is fully rolled out, the platform will prioritize tighter controls on new uploads.

While YouTube's intentions are pretty clear, this raises several important questions:

How is clickbait defined? A typical example of egregious clickbait that YouTube gives includes:

1. The video was titled 'This Person Has Gone Forever' but in reality they just resigned.
2. The thumbnail image is about 'important political news', but the video content is just about an everyday news story.

So should we focus solely on political content or expand into other areas? The answers to these questions will play a key role in determining the impact of this initiative on both creators and viewers.

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While there are still many uncertainties, the move underscores the growing importance of combating misinformation while also working toward a more transparent and creative online video environment.

It's not yet clear whether this policy will apply to the US, UK, or other countries. We've reached out to Google for more information and will update this post as soon as we have more information.

Lesley Montoya

Update 22 December 2024