Clickbait is one of the worst elements of Facebook, page owners try to deceive unsuspecting users with catchy titles and fake video play buttons in order to get more hits on their websites.
To fight clickbait and improve the integrity of information Facebook has taken some new measures that will limit the spread of stories in News Feed with fake video play buttons embedded in their imagery or videos of only a static image.
The blog post explains that Facebook will begin demoting stories that feature fake video play buttons and static images disguised as videos in News Feed. Spammers often use fake play buttons to trick people into clicking links to low quality websites. When people click on an image in their News Feed featuring a play button, they expect a video to start playing; instead they’re taken to another website.
Facebook algorithms can detect movement:
The static images disguised as videos, which also link to low-quality sites, are used to trick Facebook’s algorithms. The company will start using a “motion scoring” system that detects movement inside a video to classify and demote these clips.
Facebook won’t actually delete these clickbait stories, however they will be downranked, meaning they’re more likely to be buried in the Feed. The blog post says that publishers that rely on these intentionally deceptive practices should expect the distribution of those clickbait stories to markedly decrease, but that won’t affect any other page with original content.
It also merits mentioning here that a couple of months ago Facebook updated its algorithm to that makes low-quality websites less likely to appear in your News Feed.
