rage-baiting
Sign in to saveAlso known as ragebait, rage bait, ragefarming, rage farming, ragebaiting, engagement farming, rage-farming
In internet slang, rage-baiting (also ragebaiting, rage-farming, or rage-seeding) is the manipulative tactic of eliciting outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, and revenue, as well as attracting new subscribers, followers, or supporters. This manipulation occurs through offensive or inflammatory headlines, memes, tropes, or comments that provoke users to respond in kind.
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
12 sectionsContents
- Etymology, definitions and related terms
- Mechanisms
- Examples and impact
- In politics
- Social media
- Facebook outside the United States
- Documented harms
- Countermeasures
- See also
- References
- Sources
- External links
In internet slang, rage-baiting (also ragebaiting, rage-farming, or rage-seeding) is the manipulative tactic of eliciting outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, and revenue, as well as attracting new subscribers, followers, or supporters. This manipulation occurs through offensive or inflammatory headlines, memes, tropes, or comments that provoke users to respond in kind.
The related terms rage-seeding and rage-farming specifically describe the process by which content creators intentionally sow outrage to harvest (farm) online engagement, thereby amplifying their message. Political actors have employed rage-baiting as a tactic against their opponents, while social media algorithms reward both positive and negative engagement, inadvertently encouraging such behavior.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “rage-baiting” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.