YouTube is trying to crack down on the cause of the platform’s severe misinformation problem by deleting the offending content.
A recent official announcement from YouTube India might serve as a warning to certain artists who use clickbait names or thumbnails to make their videos appear more interesting. Google revealed in a blog post that it will eliminate videos with clickbait titles or thumbnails, particularly those involving breaking news or current events.
According to the tech giant, many content makers use flashy and deceptive names like ‘Breaking News’ or ‘The President Steps Down,’ which usually lead to misconceptions and, eventually, false material. YouTube believes that these kind of titles have the potential to mislead and annoy visitors, particularly those looking for crucial information.
“We’re stepping up our efforts to combat outrageous clickbait on YouTube. This implies that we want to enhance our enforcement against films whose titles or thumbnails promise viewers something that the video does not provide,” Google stated in a blog post.
“This is especially crucial when the video covers issues such as breaking news or current events, since viewers should not be mislead by what they see on YouTube. “We’ll start by gradually rolling this out in India over the next few months,” the tweet said.
To address the issue, YouTube’s news effort has announced that it would delete videos that use these types of clickbait methods without penalizing the producer’s channel. The business will, however, offer content producers some time to change and adapt their films to YouTube’s new criteria.
YouTube has already tried to address the issue of clickbait on its site. In the past, the digital behemoth sponsored an educational program to help producers avoid clickbait. Currently, videos with similar names will be deleted.
Meanwhile, numerous questions remain unaddressed, like how YouTube would structure and categorise news or current events, possible revenue-generating challenges, and rules for distinguishing between clickbait and legitimate content. The IT business has also claimed that the laws would go into force in the coming months, but has not provided a specific date. There is also uncertainty over whether sports or other categories will be included in the events. We anticipate that YouTube will release further information in the coming weeks.
