Hyperbolic video titles (and their weird thumbnails) are commonplace on YouTube as creators jockey for clicks, but the video site is now promising a crackdown on “egregious clickbait.”
“We’re planning to increase our enforcement against videos where the title or thumbnail promises viewers something that the video doesn’t deliver,” YouTube says in a blog post. “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.”
Examples include a video titled “the president resigned!” where the video doesn’t address a presidential resignation or 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—particularly in moments when they come to YouTube in search for important or timely information,” YouTube says.
YouTube will remove these videos “without issuing a strike.” YouTube has a three-strikes policy whereby channels are permanently banned following three strikes in a 90-day period.
“We’ll start by slowly rolling this out in India over the coming months,” YouTube says, prioritizing new video uploads moving forward.
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Users have welcomed the change. “Starting in the right place. idk how many times I clicked an Indian dude’s video cuz he clickbaited me,” wrote on user on X.
“Finally… I have become so tired of clicking at videos thinking they have the information I need, only to be disappointed when the dude starts talking about something completely unrelated and random,” wrote another.
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About Jibin Joseph
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