Facebook to scale down click-bait stories from users' newsfeed

Facebook has reportedly decided to scale down the number of so-called click-bait stories that appear high on people's news feeds.

Facebook research scientist Khalid El-Arini and product specialist Joyce Tang wrote in a blog post that the decision is aimed at providing users more relevant information and to weed out stories that have been marked as spam by users. It will also ensure that posts from friends are not drowned out, reported CNET.

The process to modify the news feed of Facebook users will be a two-fold process, the report said. One, the network will take into consideration the amount of time users spend on reading an article. If the users click on an article and immediately click back to Facebook then it indicates that the article did not interest the reader and was a click-bait. Two, Facebook will also look at the number of likes and comments that a story receives versus the number of clicks it is getting.

The social media network also said that it will prioritize posts that come with story links in comparison to those with just a photo and caption.