Facebook Cracks Down On Fake Clickbait Videos

Stop ClickbaitFacebook continued its fight against spam content this week, cracking down on links that trick users into clicking by looking like a video.

You’ve probably seen them in your News Feed before: scammers add a fake play button over an image and include a sensational headline to entice you to watch. When you click on the fake play button, you’re redirected to a spammy site instead.

“When people click on an image in their News Feed featuring a play button, they expect a video to start playing,” a team of Facebook engineers wrote in a blog post. “Spammers often use fake play buttons to trick people into clicking links to low quality websites.”

While this isn’t the biggest problem facing Facebook, the company said it’s one that really irritates users.

“While the prevalence is statistically low, the frustration expressed by people who use Facebook who encounter these deceptive practices is high,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch.

In addition to the fake play button, Facebook also recently down ranked videos that merely depict a still image.