Rage Farming

What does rage farming mean online?

Eliciting outrage to increase engagement

Rage farming is when people post online content meant to rile others up to increase clicks, traffic, revenue, etc. It is similar to clickbait but focuses on instigating outrage to amplify an idea or opinion.

Trolls, influencers, businesses, and bots may all rage-farm online, especially on social media. For example, a Twitter user may post an inflammatory tweet that opponents will quote tweet, which amplifies their reach to more users. Also, many social sites' algorithms reward users who generate interaction (good or bad), further benefitting the original poster.

Political bloggers also rage-farm to get their supporters and opponents to share and comment on their content, which may include written articles, podcasts, and videos. For example, instead of posting something they know their supporters agree with, they post something that will infuriate their opponents enough to get them to visit, comment, share, etc., along with their supporters.

Origin of rage farming

It is unclear who first coined the slang term "rage farming," but it dates back to at least January 2022 when John Scott-Railton, a researcher at Citizen Lab, tweeted about it on January 7th. The term comes from strategically planting a rage-inducing "seed" that yields more "crop" thanks to the outraged parties.

Example

Don't respond to any more of his rage farming. He makes more money off people like you when you respond
Wow. That's messed up
Yup. That's social media
Rage farming involves planting seeds of outrage to reap clicks, shares, revenue, etc.
Rage farming involves planting seeds of outrage to reap clicks, shares, revenue, etc.

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Updated June 2, 2023

Rage farming definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Rage farming" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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