clickbait
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Netflix reveals more details about its social media-themed series 'Clickbait'
When Netflix shared that it was working on a new series entitled Clickbait, it was clear that the show would delve into the dangers of social networking and how people portray themselves online, but that was the extent of the information the company made available at the time. However, thanks to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, key details regarding the plot and its stars have now been revealed.
Facebook shut down a spam network in Brazil
Facebook's crackdown on misleading content continues, this time in Brazil. The social network gave the boot to 68 pages and 43 accounts -- all linked to a single marketing group -- for violating the company's policies on misrepresentation and spam.
Facebook takes down hundreds of spam accounts and Pages
Facebook announced today that it is taking down 559 Pages and 251 accounts for breaking its rules on spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior. Though that's a relatively small number for Facebook -- by the second quarter of this year, it had already removed 583 million fake accounts -- this round of takedowns shows how the company is targeting spam that's motivated by money rather than politics.
Facebook will begin demoting ‘engagement bait’ posts in News Feed
Scrolling through your Facebook News Feed, you'll probably come across posts telling you to like or comment if you share some sort of similar sentiment -- "LIKE this if you're an Aries!" -- or telling you to share it so you can earn a chance at winning a prize. Well, you might start seeing a lot less of those types of posts because Facebook is now cracking down on "engagement bait." Facebook said, "We will demote posts that go against one of our key News Feed values — authenticity...We want to reduce the spread of content that is spammy, sensational or misleading in order to promote more meaningful and authentic conversations on Facebook."
Facebook tests a feature that provides info on article publishers
Facebook is still working out how to reduce the reach of fake news and misinformation on its site and today, it starts testing a new feature that sounds like it might be pretty useful. When an article link is shared in someone's News Feed, there will now be a small "i" button that will bring up additional information about the publisher and article when clicked. It will include information from the publisher's Wikipedia page, a link to follow its Facebook Page, Trending and Related articles about the same topic and a graphic on where and how the article is being shared across Facebook. When any of that information isn't available, Facebook will say that explicitly. That in itself is pretty useful. For example, if there's no Wikipedia page for the publisher of the piece, it could mean it's not a reputable outlet.
Facebook axed 'tens of thousands' of accounts before German election
Facebook released a recap today about the efforts it made to minimize the spread of fake news during Germany's recent election. Facebook VP Richard Allan said in the announcement, "These actions did not eliminate misinformation entirely in this election – but they did make it harder to spread, and less likely to appear in people's News Feeds. Studies concluded that the level of false news was low. We learned a lot, and will continue to apply those lessons in other forthcoming elections."
Facebook demotes video clickbait posts to improve your feeds
In a bid to promote "authentic communication," Facebook will now demote clickbait stories that present static images as video along with images with fake playback buttons in them. While the former practice just ends up confusing users, the latter actually tricks people into clicking through to a website. Both techniques are frowned upon by the social network, which says it wants to "improve the integrity of information on Facebook."
Facebook battles clickbait on a post-by-post basis
Facebook has been steadily refining its attempts to fight clickbait articles over the years, and now it's getting very, very specific. It's updating its News Feed processing methods to account for clickbait on a post-by-post level, not just domains and Facebook pages. This should "more precisely" downplay the number of misleading stories cluttering your timeline, the social network says. Moreover, it's promising a more exacting approach when it looks at individual headlines.
Google took down nearly 2 billion 'bad ads' in 2016
Sketchy advertisers are all over the internet, and Google is doing everything it can to stop them from scamming users. According to a recent report on the matter, the search giant removed 1.7 billion ads from its advertising platform in 2016, more than double the amount compared to the year prior. The online housekeeping included 68 million ads for illegal pharmaceutical products, 80 million for content that misled and deceived consumers, as well as 112 million others that used trick-to-click methods.
Snapchat fights clickbait in Discover stories
Clickbait headlines and fake news aren't limited to the web and social networks. They're also problems in mobile services, and Snapchat wants to do something about it. The company is instituting rules that prevent Discover publishers from misleading users. Creators can't use headlines or images without editorial value, and they can't produce or link to fake news. The aim is to create an "informative, factual and safe" space for news, the company tells the New York Times.
Facebook is ramping up its fight against clickbait
Two years ago, Facebook began its fight against clickbait in its news feed. It down ranked articles based on how quickly you gave up on them after you clicked through, and also prioritized pieces with a preview link so you can see what the story is about. However, the problem is still pretty rampant, so Facebook is scaling up its efforts. Now, the company is implementing a system that actually examines the words used in these headlines, automatically detecting and demoting the ones that it deems as clickbait.
You'll never believe what neural networks can do now
Clickbait headlines are the lowest form of journalism, but could they be written by a machine? After all, the Associated Press is using one to write complete financial articles, terrible as they are. Developer Lars Eidnes figured that "if this sort of writing truly is formulaic and unoriginal, we should be able to produce it automatically." Rather than building another Upworthy-style headline generator, however, Eidnes took it up a notch by enlisting a so-called recurrent neural network (RNN). That's the same type of machine learning used by SwiftKey, for one, on its beta SwiftKey Neural word-prediction app.
WTF, 'Clickbait' and 'Emoji' are now officially words?
As the English language continues to evolve in response the internet's cultural onslaught, Merriam-Webster has announced that it's adding a host of new net-centric terms to its pages. In fact, the dictionary company has recently added a total of 1,700 terms to its word repository. Among them: net neutrality, click fraud, meme, photobomb, NSFW and a host of other words your kids have already been using for years. Numerous other, non-technical words made their way into Merriam-Webster Unabridged as well including jegging, crema, and colossal squid.
Facebook wants to help you share that must-read story
Picture the scene: you're browsing on your phone when, suddenly, you find a list of the Top 10 celebrity pets that have killed people. Now, you just have to show this to your friends on Facebook, but that means finding the share link, holding it down until it copies, opening the app and pasting it in, which could take several seconds. Naturally, that's an intolerable situation for Mark Zuckerberg, which is why the social network is testing a way to search and add these links from within the Facebook app itself. That way, all you'd have to do is click the Add Link button, type "10 celebrity pets that have kil..." and the link should pop up all by itself.
Facebook fights clickbait articles, you won't believe what happens next
Never mind ads -- one of the biggest annoyances on Facebook is the endless wave of clickbait articles, whose over-the-top headlines trick you into reading forgettable stories. Thankfully, the social network is as tired of this fluff as you are; it's changing the News Feed to prioritize stories that you really want to see. Facebook will now check to see how quickly you come back to its site after clicking a link, and whether or not you like or comment on the related post when you return. If many people quickly give up on a clickbait piece, your feed will downplay that story in favor of more substantial fare. Facebook is also prioritizing links shared in its preview-friendly official format, so you should have a better sense of what articles contain before you jump in. It won't be surprising if purveyors of puffed-up headlines eventually find a workaround, but the signal-to-noise ratio in your social stream will hopefully improve in the near future.
Ask Massively: Seven seriously spectacular reasons to hate clickbait
Oh hi! Welcome to our clickbait article, and thanks for clicking! No really, let's talk about clickbait. Massively reader Avaera recently posed to me a question that dovetailed nicely with a few complaints I've seen in our comments. He wrote, Does Massively make a deliberate effort to minimize the number of perceived "clickbait" opinion pieces? That is, to make sure that any controversial topics or unpopular opinions are discussed only sparingly, so that the perception and reputation of the site is kept relatively neutral? I can completely understand trying to manage a certain tone for the community; I'm just curious if that is an explicit factor in some editorial decisions. I'll tell you, but first you have to click to find out!
