Monday, January 30, 2017

Lying clickbait scourge continues

Google and Facebook have taken steps in recent weeks to crack down on fake news from people gaming their online networks for clicks and advertising revenue. (See articles by the New York Times and Recode.)
But I’m still seeing a lot of lying clickbait from the likes of Taboola, Outbrain and Revcontent. These services are using photos not related to the subjects they are advertising in sponsored articles and promoted content. This practice needs to end now.
What follows are some fresh examples I’ve come across.

A sponsored article on Yahoo titled “17 WNBA players that will blow your mind” included a picture of an attractive blonde basketball player.
That woman is Antonija Sandric, a Croatian professional basketball player. She has played European and Olympic basketball, but has never played in the WNBA.



Another sponsored article on Yahoo titled “These Olympians are completely jaw dropping now” featured a picture of a busty lady taking a selfie.
That’s no Olympic athlete. It’s curvy Russian model Anastasia Kvitko.



A Taboola sponsored article titled “The most priceless moments ever caught on cam” used a photo of a fetching young lady whose car appears to have spun out in the snow.
The promoted article presents the photo as though it was captured spontaneously. It wasn’t. It’s from a fetish website that depicts sexy women having car trouble. The website, CarStuckGirls.com, uses models and cool cars for its pictorials.




Another deceptive sponsored article is titled “After losing 100 pounds, Precious is a total babe.” It features a picture of actress Gabourey Sidibe, best known for the movie “Precious” (2009), side by side with a picture of actress-singer Jennifer Hudson. Sorry, but they are different people.





And finally, lying clickbait articles are constantly trying to pass off live celebrities as having died. Here are some examples featuring actress Jennifer Coolidge and actor Tom Selleck.



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