YouTube will crack down on ‘clickbait’ starting in India

Clickbait Videos have always been annoying, but there are times when they can be downright harmful. YouTube has it Pledge to promote Its enforcement efforts when it comes to dealing with “awful clickbait content” on its website, particularly that covering – or pretending to cover – breaking news and current events. The website describes awful clickbait content as “videos where the title or thumbnail promises viewers something the video doesn’t deliver.”

YouTube says these videos leave viewers “feeling cheated, frustrated, or even misled” if they come to the website looking for honest and timely information about important issues. If you’ve ever watched a clickbait video, you’ll know this is definitely true. You may have trained yourself to be able to spot and skip them over the years, but some people may still not know the difference between clickbait and legitimate content.

One example of egregious clickbait, according to YouTube, is if a video says “The president resigned!” Without actually addressing the president’s resignation. Misleading thumbnails also constitute clickbait content. If the thumbnail says “Top Political News” and the video does not contain any political news, it will also be subject to YouTube enforcement action.

The website will start cracking down on clickbait videos in India — it didn’t say how it would expand from there, but we asked it for more information. At this time, any video that violates this policy will be deleted without any fines issued. After it reviews old videos, it will prioritize new uploads, likely so they don’t reach as many people as they should.