Facebook has announced it is in the process of introducing updates that aim to cut down on clickbait videos from the news feed. Also on the chopping block will be posts having a fake video button.
Facebook has already been at war against clickbait articles or fake news stuff. However, the social media company was perhaps a bit lax when it came to videos.
That again might have to do with its new found love for videos, something that the firm is keen to have more of on its platform.
Not surprisingly, scamsters were quick to jump on to it, and were using videos to lure users into clicking the same, which again were often used to drive up traffic on their sites or display ads. More often, such posts don’t play on its own as is the case with videos on Facebook. Naturally, the next reaction for most will be to click on the video to ensure it plays alright, thereby serving the scamsters purpose.
Even static images were seen carrying a false video icon to entice users into clicking those.
That is not all as there have also been instances of static memes being passed off as videos of 10-sec duration. While the tech-savvy users would be all too adept at picking up the trick, not all have the same acumen in distinguishing the fake videos from the original ones.
However, Facebook has now stated they have made changes to its algorithm that populates the news feed to ensure clickbait stuff gets blocked automatically. Of course, none of it is a manual process with Facebook employing advanced AI programs to detect and identify the video anomalies.
It isn’t too long ago that Facebook had made a similar announcement, targeting fake news then. In fact, so huge a menace that fake news on Facebook had turned out to be that many attributes the surprise victory of Trump in the US presidential elections to it. Facebook has since been convincing users it has tweaked its AI program to prevent fake news to appear on the news feed anymore.
Now with fake videos added to the list, the AI program and the team behind it have their task cut out, it must be said.
