YouTube India has made an official notification that might serve as a warning to certain creators who use clickbait titles or thumbnails to make their videos appear more interesting.
“We’re strengthening our efforts to tackle egregious clickbait on YouTube. This means we’re planning to increase our enforcement against videos where the title or thumbnail promises viewers something that the video doesn’t deliver. This is especially important when the video covers topics like breaking news or current events, ensuring viewers aren’t misled about what they watch on YouTube. We’ll start by slowly rolling this out in India over the coming months,” Google said in a blog post.
According to Google, egregious clickbait is when the title and thumbnail are not in line with the video’s content.
“Egregious clickbait occurs when the video’s title or thumbnail includes promises or claims that aren’t delivered within the video itself, especially when that content focuses on breaking news or current events. This can leave viewers feeling tricked, frustrated, or even misled—particularly in moments when they come to YouTube in search for important or timely information,” said the Google blog post.
A video title that reads, “The President Resigned!” but doesn’t discuss the resignation is one of two instances of egregious clickbait mentioned by the search engine blog. “Top political news” appears in the thumbnail of a video that lacks news coverage.
“To ensure creators have time to adjust to these enforcement updates, we’ll start by removing content that violates this policy without issuing a strike. And as we continue to educate creators, our enforcement efforts will prioritize new video uploads moving forward,” it added.
YouTube’s Efforts to Combat Clickbait
In the past, YouTube has made an effort to address the problem of clickbait. The tech giant previously started an educational program to help creators avoid clickbait. Videos that use these titles will currently be taken down.
In the meantime, several questions remain, including how YouTube will organize and arrange news or current affairs. These possible problems may generate income and criteria for distinguishing between real and clickbait videos. Although it has not provided a specific date, the internet company has also said that the laws will go into effect in the coming months. The inclusion of sports or other categories in the events is also a matter of some uncertainty. We anticipate more details from YouTube in the coming weeks.
