YouTube, in its fight against misleading content, is bringing stricter guidelines into action to address clickbait, by targeting misleading titles and thumbnails and removing those videos from the platform
India is YouTube’s largest market, with over 450 million active users. Creators, including those from India, often create creative video thumbnails and catchy titles that make audiences click on their videos in an instant. These videos are often referred to as clickbait.
In its fight against misleading content, YouTube is bringing stricter guidelines to combat this issue by targeting misleading titles and thumbnails. The move comes following YouTube’s continued efforts to enhance user experience. Earlier, it had unveiled new tools to combat the issue of plagiarism and misinformation. Now, it is bringing the issue of clickbait into limelight, with their focus centred around current events and breaking news.
By rolling out this policy, users can gather timely and accurate information about current news and events, thereby gaining audience trust on the platform. In addition, it will limit misinformation by stopping creators from capitalising through clickbait. YouTube has said that such misleading content would be removed without issuing strikes against creators, however, the rules are subject to change. At a time when unbiased and truthful reporting stand as important pillars of guidance, the policy change comes as a welcome move amongst viewers.
The platform announced that videos with “egregious clickbait” used in titles or thumbnails will be acted upon and removed. “Egregious clickbait” refers to exaggerated claims or statements used in the video title or thumbnail, but fails to showcase that content in the actual video. Viewers are often left frustrated as they end up losing on their time without having gained any insightful information, for which the video was meant to be seen. An example for this situation being, say a video says, “Breaking News: Prime Minister resigns”, will be charged and accounted for under the new rules if the title was simply meant for viewership without any relevant information on the topic.
By not putting strikes on creators, the platform is allowing them with an opportunity to adapt to the new strategies and come up with their own new plans that will minimise the risk of counter measures. However, there is no clear distinction as to what classifies as ‘clickbait’ since it can range from a simple exaggeration in a story to a fully deceptive video, and there may exist only a fine line difference between the two.
Additionally, it is still not clear how the evaluation of the content will take place. With over 500 hours of videos being uploaded on the platform every minute, it is definitely a challenge for the platform itself to filter out such content. Creators are still in doubt with what is to be done in case any of their video(s) is taken down. Guidelines for appeal are yet to be provided.
With the gradual rollout of the policy, the move showcases that the platform is committed to delivering trustworthy content to its users. Although it is still in its early stages, it does mark out as a significant step, taken to address issues that matter the most at the moment.
