False promises

YouTube wants to take stronger action against clickbait

In future, YouTube wants to take stronger action against "outrageous" clickbait on its platform - i.e. videos in which the title or thumbnail contains promises or claims that are not kept in the video itself. The company plans to launch this initially in India in the coming months, with other countries to follow.

As YouTube explained in a blog post, the main aim is to take action against clickbait that refers to current news or events. "This can leave viewers feeling deceived, frustrated or even misled - especially when they're looking for important or timely information on YouTube," it said.

As an example of "egregious" clickbait, YouTube cited a video entitled "The President has resigned", although the video did not refer to the president's resignation. Another example cited was a thumbnail stating "Top political news", although the associated video contains no news coverage at all.

"Slow" start
The measures against clickbait will initially be introduced "slowly" in India. To ensure that creators have time to adapt to the changes, content that violates the new policy will initially only be removed, but the creators will not (yet) be punished. "And while we continue to educate creators, we will prioritize new video uploads in our enforcement efforts going forward," YouTube explained.

YouTube did not provide any information on how the platform intends to recognize clickbait. It also remains unclear for the time being whether the fight against clickbait will be extended to other areas outside of news and current events at a later date.