If you're among even the most casual of Facebook users, you've likely seen posts like these: "You'll NEVER believe which two stars got in a catfight!" "CLICK to see this absolutely incredible REAL video!!!" But now, Facebook is cracking down on this particular brand of exclamation-laden click-bait.
Facebook made the announcement via a blog post on Monday, in which the company defined click-bait as content in which "a publisher posts a link with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much information about what they will see." A lot of people click on those posts, which push them to high positions in more users' news feeds, Facebook said. But users complained about the low-quality content, which Facebook will identify using a handful of factors -- including whether the post garners only clicks rather than "likes" and comments -- and de-prioritize the posts in users' feeds. As for that "small set of publishers" devoted to click-bait posts? You can TOTALLY guess what might happen to their Facebook reach next!