“Rage-baiting”: to make money, these influencers have only one goal, to make Internet users furious

Influencers are only looking for one thing: to generate engagement. It's their obsession. Likes, shares, comments, views… So many essential actions for the algorithm to get them right and allow them to float among all the content posted daily on Instagram or TikTok. Most creators will therefore rack their brains to answer the essential question: “What would people like to see?” However, there is a second path, that of the exact opposite, as the BBC explains.

The article takes the example of Winta Zesu, a 24-year-old content creator, who makes her money off the anger she can arouse. “I get a lot of hate,” affirms the one who earned 150,000 dollars (approximately 143,000 euros) in the year 2023 thanks to her publications on social networks. The young woman seeks to get her spectators to react, and if the comments are negative, so much the better, as long as the traffic is there. “Every video that reached millions of views did so thanks to hateful comments”she says.

How does she generate so many negative reactions? By featuring herself in videos where she plays a New York model, whose main problem is being… too beautiful. “I get a lot of mean comments, like 'you're not the prettiest girl' or 'come down to earth, you're too confident in yourself'”she confides. Spectators who have obviously not understood that what they are watching is only a fiction invented by Winta.

Other creators are trying their hand at what is called rage-bait – “anger bait” in good French – by publishing any type of content to anger as many spectators as possible. The latter comment, share and allow the post to gain popularity with algorithms, often designed to react positively to these signals. And who says more views says more money, because obviously, that's where all the interest of this new fashion lies. The increased remuneration of creators on Instagram, X or TikTok coincides with the development of rage-bait.

Fed up with cats

“If we see a cat we say 'oh, that's cute' and move on. But if we see someone doing something obscene, we might comment “that's horrible,” and that type of comment is considered high-quality engagement by the algorithm.explains Andrea Jones, creator of marketing podcast. «The more content a user creates, the more engagement they get, and the more they get paid. So some creators will do anything to get more views, even if it means arousing rage and anger in people.”

It’s a safe bet that you’ve already seen this kind of content without necessarily knowing it. Perhaps you have already fallen into the trap: absurd and aberrant cooking recipes, attacks on very popular celebrities, but also political subjects – election period obliges. Subjects that arouse anger and indignation find themselves highlighted, and some will not shy away from any baseness to line their pockets.

BBC social media specialist Marianna Spring revealed in an investigation that some X users were winning “thousands of dollars” by sharing content likely to provoke reactions such as fake news, images generated by AI or completely unfounded conspiracy theories. At the risk of saturating networks and driving users away. «It's exhausting to feel such intense emotions all the time»says Ariel Hazel, assistant professor of communications and media at the University of Michigan. “It distracts from the news, and we see an increase in active news avoidance across the world.”

Especially since this trivialization of anger on the networks could normalize it in real life, polarizing opinions and fueling sterile debates: “Algorithms amplify outrage, making it seem normal”says Dr. Brady, who studies how the brain interacts with new technologies. «What we know about some platforms like.» Another good reason to switch to Bluesky.