There have been quite a few instances where we watch a YouTube video based on its title or thumbnail content but on watching the video it turns out that the title or thumbnail content was completely different from the content shown in the video. This strategy is used many times by creators who spice up their titles or thumbnails with catchy words to get the attention of viewers and increase views for their videos. But this wastes a lot of time of the viewers and now YouTube seems to finally tackle a solution for this growing problem.
In its recent blog post, the YouTube team mentioned that they are planning to increase enforcement against videos that are used as egregious clickbait on YouTube.
First, let’s understand what is egregious clickbait.
Egregious clickbait occurs when the video 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. For example-
- If the title of the video says the president resigned but the video doesn’t address the president’s resignation
- A thumbnail that says top political news on a video that doesn’t include any news coverage
This can leave viewers feeling tricked, frustrated, or even misled. To stop this clickbait activity on YouTube, such videos will be removed from the platform. To ensure creators have time to adjust to these enforcement updates, the YouTube team will start by removing content that violates this policy without issuing a strike. While the enforcement efforts will prioritize new video uploads moving forward. This removal of videos will start in India over the coming months.
