Rage bait is no longer commonplace online, but it's taking over the internet — and changing the way we view content in the process.
Many early forms of internet content were bordering on rage-baiting, intended to stop people from sticking around long enough to have an emotional response and then engage. Think of early YouTube bait headlines, or crazy comments under tweets or Instagram posts meant to incite angry responses. But in the age of influencers, a new character has emerged: rage-bait influences. On their home platforms, rage-bait influencers simply take the baiting process one step further, creating video after video of step-by-step interactions meant to make people stop, watch, and immediately write their hearts out. But as apps like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook become shells of their former selves, cross-platform posting means rage-bait influencers can often push themselves in front of new eyes with absolutely no context and just engage further. With more social media apps involved, baiting doesn't just work – it thrives.
A prime example of this is Winta Zesu. The 22-year-old is a New York influencer known for her skits confronting horrible waiters or rude influencers at press events, usually paired with catchy headlines like “I can't believe this happened” or “Date night gone wrong.” But Zesu, who with 515,000 followers is one of the fastest growing rage influencers on TikTok right now, didn't even start this kind of content on purpose.
In Fall 2022, Zesu posted a video of her first red carpet event. In the background two girls can be seen whispering to the camera. People in her TikTok comments thought the girls were gossiping about Zesu, so she ran with it. Less than two years later, Zesu averages $10,000 to $15,000 in revenue across all platforms.
“I realized that videos blow up when controversial things happen in the video,” says Zesu Rolling rock. “When someone asks me what kind of content I do, I usually say skits or if I'm talking about these restaurant videos, [I] say satire I guess it's rage bait too. But I don't know why I don't say that. I don't really like the term.”
Zesu is not the only productive drama. Take, for example, TikToker Louise Melcher, who creates content for fictional stories and viral stories by being on the front lines. In early February, her video claiming to be the Black dancer who fell at Usher's SuperBowl halftime had 49.7 million views and was taken without context or data control to Twitter, where people unaware of Melcher's content interacted with him for real for days. (Melcher did not answer Rolling rockhis request for comment.) And outrage can extend from videos about whether your friend will peel an orange for you to political beliefs. In 2022, The Atlantic I found out that rage bait it was also a common tactic for far-right pundits and politicians to gain engagement.
It would be easy to blame rage influencers for how angry the internet of 2024 has become. But Jamie Cohen, PhD, and assistant professor of digital culture and media at Queens College, says Rolling rock These types of content creators are simply capitalizing on an existing online trend. “The algorithm normalizes every type of content,” says Cohen. “So if rage becomes normal, then you have to go more extreme to make the engagement work for the next post.”
In and of themselves, content creators making skits about fake coffee shop interactions or made-up stories about their friends aren't necessarily harmful. However, Cohen notes that the growth and prevalence of rage-bait content can make it increasingly difficult for people to accurately vet the videos in front of them — or worse, force them to fact-check so many people care. less about searching for content they'll actually enjoy.
“This bait used to [target] the vulnerable, such as people who were less media literate, the elderly, parents with less time on their hands. And I think they widen the net for what is vulnerable [include] people who aren't paying attention,” adds Cohen. “They're trying to create conversations of your average user. This is part of the internet that is becoming a less fun place. And that makes me sad.”
And while rage-bait clips, especially skits or videos that are completely made up, can become misinformation, Zesu doesn't think it's her problem when people think her videos are real — that's why you won't find her to tag her videos with warning hashtags like #skit or #fake anytime soon. “How can you not know it's satire?” she says Rolling rock. “It's so obvious you should know. So as, if [people] no, they just have to figure it out for themselves.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/what-is-rage-bait-influencers-making-people-angry-1234976621/