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Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Facebook is cutting down on clickbait headlines (and you won't believe the one simple trick it's using)

A change to Facebook’s news feed formula will prevent misleading headlines from appearing as often.

FACEBOOK BEGAN UPDATING its News Feed formula to cut down on “clickbait” headlines that promise much more than they deliver.

The tweak takes aim at headlines that intentionally leave out crucial information or mislead people, prompting them to click on links to stories to find out more, according to a blog post by Facebook researchers Kristin Hendrix and Alex Peysakhovich.

Headline examples given included “When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw This…I Was Shocked!” and “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe.”

“We’ve heard from people that they specifically want to see fewer stories with clickbait headlines or link titles,” Hendrix and Peysakhovich said.

“With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and more of the stories they want to see higher up in their feeds.”

Facebook had previously taken aim at clickbait with a News Feed update that reduced distribution of posts with links that people clicked on only to quickly return to the social network.

Facebook, which has some 1.7 billion users, said that it is cracking down even harder on clickbait by using a system that targets headlines that withhold information needed to understand what the article contains or which exaggerate to mislead readers.

For example, the headline “You’ll Never Believe Who Tripped and Fell on the Red Carpet” doesn’t clue readers into people involved or even the exact event.

“A team at Facebook reviewed thousands of headlines using these criteria, validating each other’s work to identify a large set of clickbait headlines,” the researchers said.

Any change in Facebook’s algorithm which ranks and places items in a user’s feed is closely watched by publishers because of the vast amount of potential traffic from the largest social media platform.

Clickbait headlines are typically tailored to spark people’s curiosity to lead them to stories that don’t live up to reader expectations but generate advertising revenue.

© – AFP, 2016

Read: Instagram is taking action over abusive comments >

Read: The next generation of phones will unlock by just looking at them >

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    Mute Chief
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:48 AM

    You win today Journal you win.

    313
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    Mute Anton Friendo
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:28 AM

    How come the Journal are not advertising any movies

    Maybe there are no lefty movies to watch this weekend

    18
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    Mute Gavin Scott
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    Aug 5th 2016, 5:35 PM

    Amen. Avoided 7 years bad luck and got tons of superior exposure to my unsuspecting catcher. Oh wait..

    1
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    Mute Sean C
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:55 AM

    The clickbait trolls over at Joe.ie will be crying over this. They’ll have to hire a new clickbait algorithm programmer.

    184
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    Mute Randy Rukus
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:01 AM

    What a horrendous outfit they are.

    79
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    Mute Harup Minute
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:16 AM

    It would be “a touch of class” if they did cut down on click baiting though…..

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:26 AM

    I hate Joe.ie

    59
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    Mute Shaymoose
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    Aug 5th 2016, 12:25 PM

    Do you not enjoy stories about lads in gaa jerseys in Oz drinking Barry’s tea and eating taytos?

    82
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    Mute L-Plate
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    Aug 5th 2016, 2:15 PM

    Facebook are about to do something you will NOT believe – joe.ie last article

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    Mute Harup Minute
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    Aug 5th 2016, 2:20 PM

    Those stories “restore my faith in humanity”.

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    Mute Gavin Scott
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    Aug 5th 2016, 5:34 PM

    Amen

    2
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    Mute Gene Parmesan
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:47 AM

    The journal might consider the same…

    180
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    Mute Joey_Westland
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:50 AM

    An over reliance on this type of journalism is a very poor business model in the long term.
    I see the Guardian is in a financial mess currently.

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    Mute Dave Smith
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:51 AM

    next article “should the journal cut down on the number of click bait articles?” …. to click or not to click

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:57 AM

    And he speaks 35 languages! You won’t believe!

    54
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    Mute Randy Rukus
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:00 AM

    I feel sorry for the sap who’s spent years studying journalism in college only to end up writing this crap. eg: see The Daily Edge

    58
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    Mute Dave Smith
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:09 AM

    I would never let my kids do journalism or media studies/communications, real McDonalds courses they are

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    Mute jason bourne
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:12 AM

    What would you want them to do DAVE?

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    Mute Motherofdivinejebus
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:14 AM

    Work in Burger King

    38
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    Mute RandomAct Of Kindnes
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    Aug 5th 2016, 2:03 PM

    Do they teach clickbait as a module when studying journalism in college?

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    Mute James Roche
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:02 AM

    TheLadBible is gonna be screwed you will NOT believe what happens to them next!!!

    108
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    Mute John Galvin
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:47 AM

    Ok ok that was funny!

    84
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    Mute Motherofdivinejebus
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:07 AM

    LMAO!!
    Ye have some sense of humour in the Journal for even daring to post this on your website –
    This particular story has the potential to blow the record for most comments out of the water,
    and the majority of them will be giving you guys stick!

    31
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    Mute Brian Finucane
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    Aug 5th 2016, 12:11 PM

    I’d prefer if they stopped those fake competition, where 30,000 morons think they’re winning a brand new BMW X5, and they all post “BLACK” “BLUE” “BLUE Please!”

    27
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    Mute Ryan Hardy
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    Aug 5th 2016, 2:36 PM

    Or type amen

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    Mute Meanderingsz
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    Aug 5th 2016, 12:10 PM

    Good, no more DAILY EDGE articles…

    25
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    Mute Daisy Chainsaw
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:02 AM

    Adblock plus. I don’t see anything but my news feed.

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    Mute Del Haven
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:54 AM

    I love that they’re doing this.

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    Mute justanothertaxpayer
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:34 AM

    Even while reading the article I was planning my indignant comment about the missing trick they are using.
    Then I got it and it was amazing …

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    Mute I invented the @
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:18 AM

    Bravo journal!

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    Mute ian noonan
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    Aug 5th 2016, 11:01 AM

    Some neck

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    Mute Ryan Hardy
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    Aug 5th 2016, 2:34 PM

    That’s Joe.ie screwed

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    Mute Robin Basstard
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    Aug 5th 2016, 12:43 PM

    Facebook is cutting down on clickbait…you won’t believe what happened next…HERE

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    Mute Lennie
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    Aug 5th 2016, 6:50 PM

    How ironic that the Journal which loves publishing click bait stories decides to publish this and you will never guess what happens next.

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    Mute karl
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    Aug 5th 2016, 1:15 PM

    Brilliant news …..

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    Mute Stephen East
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    Aug 5th 2016, 10:25 PM

    I wonder if we will find the results shocking

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