Facebook Strikes Back Against Clickbait Once Again

Stop ClickbaitFacebook has had a busy few months fighting clickbait and spam. This week, it announced another set of sweeping changes to its News Feed policy that show the site is intent on eradicating phony content forever.

The policy tweak will drill down to a post-by-post level to fight spammers and scammers by examining if a post’s headline either withholds or exaggerates information.

“Headlines that withhold information intentionally leave out crucial details or mislead people, forcing them to click to find out the answer,” Facebook wrote in a blog post announcing the change. “For example, ‘When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS…’ Headlines that exaggerate the details of a story with sensational language tend to make the story seem like a bigger deal than it really is.”

Additionally, the site expanded its spam-fighting technology to nine other languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and more.

Facebook’s massive Internet footprint means that seemingly-small tweaks like this could could make a big difference in reducing the overall amount of spam online.

Of course, the site has a large financial incentive to do so; the less scams you see on Facebook, the more likely you’ll be to trust it. And the more likely you’ll be to trust the advertisers that pay Facebook.