What is rage-baiting?

A very widespread trend in media worldwide is to publish articles or headlines aimed at generating outrage and anger to achieve consequent reader engagement. This practice is known as rage-baiting, a variation of the term click-baiting—commonly used to describe content designed specifically to drive interactions by exploiting sensationalism. Rage-baiting, like click-baiting, can be highly profitable, not just for publications but especially for content creators. Recently, the BBC explained how creator Winta Zesu managed to earn over $150,000 thanks to numerous hate comments on her posts, leveraging the interactions they generated. On her social media channels, Zesu portrays a New York model whose main life challenge is being «too beautiful.» However, many users fail to realize that this is a constructed character. While click-baiting is a brazen technique designed to lure users, for example, through questions left unanswered or phrases promising sensational but ultimately nonexistent revelations, rage-baiting works differently. It strategically and somewhat manipulatively presents a distorted or stereotypical view of a particular topic so that users are outraged enough to leave a comment, thereby providing engagement to the creator.

«Every single one of my video posts that generated millions of views did so thanks to hate comments,» explains Zesu. The spread of rage-baiting coincided with the introduction, by major social media platforms, of mechanisms that reward the volume of interactions generated by posts, such as likes, comments, and shares, allowing content creators to monetize directly through the platforms. Essentially, the higher the engagement, the greater the revenue. The issue is that even negative comments are often interpreted by the algorithms of individual social media platforms as «high-quality interactions» which has made the practice of rage-baiting increasingly popular. Even Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, admitted that on Threads, there has been «an increase in content designed to drive engagement», and the company is working to address the issue.

The consequences of rage-baiting

Rage-baiting takes many forms and follows different strategies. Some, like Winta Zesu or Michele Comi in Italy, play on established stereotypes, such as the “beautiful but shallow” girl, creating deliberately exaggerated characters to provoke indignation. Others focus on cultural provocations: this is the case of those who prepare traditional Italian dishes using blatantly inappropriate ingredients or methods, knowing that users from Italy—who are notoriously protective of their culinary culture—will react angrily in the comments. The Instagram page Italians mad at food, though with an ironic intent, perfectly represents this phenomenon. However, the same dynamic applies to other areas: videos questioning established rules about fitness, exaggerated opinions on movies or famous artists, and even political or social topics—all designed to divide the audience and fuel debate, often more chaotic than constructive, in the comments.

Many experts express concern about the normalization of anger on social media. Algorithms, by amplifying outrage, tend to make negative emotions like anger and contempt feel more pervasive than they actually are. This phenomenon can lead some users, particularly those with an intense online life, to perceive the world in a distorted way, believing that extreme opinions and exaggerated reactions are the norm and that there is no room for more balanced and constructive discussions. Another concern regarding rage-baiting is the progressive decline in trust towards posts flooding platform feeds. Constant exposure to sensationalist content that deliberately fuels users’ indignation and resentment can impair some people's ability to discern truthful information, increasing distrust in the quality of online resources.