Clickbait is Internet content that uses overemphasized or misleading headlines to lure a person into clicking a link. Once the link is clicked, it brings the user to another website that contains multiple advertisements and sometimes malicious content. The most common objective of clickbait is to drive page views on websites, whether for their own purposes or to increase advertising revenue. Clickbait can also be used in phishing attacks, either driving users to a different page where they enter personal information or having users click links that installs malware.
Some examples of clickbait headlines would be:
Clickbait headlines like these tend to spread quickly through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram due to the easy ‘shareability’ of these outlandish articles.
Source: BBC, TechCrunch, Webopedia
Related Terms: Disinformation, Malware, Phishing