Facebook to time users in order to spot click-bait stories

Social network king Facebook has announced plans to weed out “click-bait” stories by timing how long users spend on the story before returning to the social site.

“Click-bait” is the practice of using an eye-catching headline to draw in readers without really telling them what they’re about to see. Facebook say users have been telling the site they regard click-bait as spam, so the social network is stepping in. An example of a click-bait news story on Facebook (Facebook)

“If people click on an article and spend time reading it, it suggests they clicked through to something valuable. If they click through to a link and then come straight back to Facebook, it suggests that they didn’t find something that they wanted,” said a post on the official Facebook blog.

The update will use this idea, as well as the number of likes, shares and comments an article gets, in order to judge if it is relevant content or not.

Previously, more attention – views – meant an post would be pushed up a user’s news feed. Facebook hopes this tweak will cut down on the irrelevant posts gaining prominence.

The move comes after Facebook revealed that some of its billion active monthly users were complaining that content from friends and family was starting to be “drowned out” by click-bait and ads.