A Facebook page dedicated to satirising clickbait news has been removed after being reported by Ladbible.
The page, called Anti-Clickbait Society, had around 64,000 followers when it was taken down earlier this month after the publisher objected to the use of its content.
The Anti-Clickbait Society claims to “ruin clickbait’s day so you can enjoy yours” by summarising news articles from various publishers that include clickbait headlines.
It posts an article summary from the likes of Ladbible, Unilad, and Reach publications, alongside a photo of the original misleading headline.
The Facebook page was set up last year by Danny, a 41-year-old office worker who said he was “getting sick” of seeing clickbait articles, where “you have to hunt for the four words you were looking for in 16 random paragraphs, all carefully placed between adverts”.
“So, I decided, for a bit of a laugh, just to post things saying ‘here’s the [information],” he said.
A Ladbible spokesperson confirmed they had objected to the page, telling Press Gazette: “We requested the removal of the posts due to the unauthorised use of our content, including Ladbible’s logo and branding, which constitutes a clear infringement of our intellectual property rights.”
Danny, who has chosen not to share his real identity as he is “not doing this for personal infamy”, said he had “no chance to respond or go through the page and delete” the offending posts, and alleged Ladbible had submitted hundreds of reports.
He believed having Ladbible’s logo on the screenshots, and the fact he was “never impersonating them, or trying to pass myself off as them”, counted as “giving them credit”.
Anti-Clickbait Society 2.0
The operation has been restarted by Danny under the name Anti-Clickbait Society 2.0 with 16,000 followers at the time of publication.
Danny, whose personal Facebook profile was also removed when the page was taken down deleting years of his own photos, said: “I’m unwilling to give up and let [publishers posting clickbait] get away with it.”
He added it is “ruining the integrity of the media” with “misinformation being recycled constantly”.
“It will lead to a generation of kids out here who don’t know what to trust, and will believe this absolute nonsense just thrown at them by one source,” he said.
In a recent post under its new page, the Society summarised the Mail Online headline: “Ben Affleck humiliates ex JLo with this demeaning one-word nickname”.
Providing a concise explainer of the story, the Society’s caption reads: “Apparently, the nickname is simply ‘Little’.
“She’s 5’5 so…she’s not large. Not particularly little either for a female. Either way, I don’t know how this humiliates her.
“‘Nosher’. Now there’s a nickname that could be considered a bit humiliating. You’re welcome.”
‘Cheeky, but indicative of the state of journalism’
Freelance journalist Patrick Ward told Press Gazette he came across the page “about a month ago”.
“I don’t know whether they’re providing a public service or winding up newspaper providers,” he said. “It seems to have had a lot of complaints.
“It’s mainly quite amusing, but on the more serious side [publishers like] Ladbible can clamp down on criticism of them.
“The use of clickbait cheapens news, especially on social media. This page seems to be targeting a lot of Reach headlines – it’s cheeky, but indicative of [the state of] journalism.
“A lot of young journalists are now working in what seems like factory conditions, churning stuff out, and pressing buttons on AI. It’s a crime against journalism, and turning people off entering the industry, as well as the general reader.”
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