UK tabloid Express steps up clickbait headlines to trick users
With Facebook’s various steps to clamp down on misleading “clickbait” headlines over the last year or so, you’d think stepping up the level of “clickbaityness” in your headlines wasn’t perhaps a sound business model.
But this is what UK tabloid media outlet The Daily Express has been doing recently, much to the ire of many social media users.
Clickbait refers to the use of greatly exaggerated or deliberately misleading headlines to induce clicks to a webpage.
And while The Daily Express is hardly known for its insightful, fact based reporting – instead often relying on exaggerating entertainment stories or just making up fake weather headlines to get visitors – the tabloid has really stepped up the misleading headlines recently.
Take the below post, for example.
Despite the claim that Ant threatened to “smash in Andi Peters’ face” in the headline, no such threat occurred. It actually referred to a jokey skit by the presenter duo that had been scripted. Of course visitors were only told that once they had clicked the link and reached the Express webpage.
Another headline (below) claimed singer/presenter Bradley Walsh rudely snapped at Countdown personality Rachel Riley in an outburst during a TV programme. Again the claim was almost entirely fictional, as visitors found out once visiting The Express website that the entire incident was just a light hearted joke between the pair.
And while these kind of posts always draw many angry and critical comments from Facebook users, The Express still enjoys a significant social media presence.
Clickbait and the tabloids have often gone hand in hand, but we believe it’s getting worse. It is no longer exaggeration, but outright deception being used to draw in website visitors.
What do you think of clickbait being used by tabloid outlets? Is it getting worse? And should Facebook do more to stop it from spreading across their site? Let us know.
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