Social media outrage facilitates fake news

Outrage sparks social media engagement. A post that generates outrage is much more likely to be shared than one which plays on other human emotions. Bloggers and advertisers know this. They know that if they can generate a ‘clickbait’ article that sparks sufficient outrage, they will draw engagement and get clicks, which they can turn into advertising revenue. Unscrupulous companies and individuals, therefore, publish false information designed to outrage, knowing that it will earn them a tidy sum of revenue.^[2] In this way, social media outrage becomes a dangerous network through which misinformation prospers. This can often have disastrous consequences. In 2016, a conspiracy theory gained traction on social media that suggested senior members of the Democratic party were involved in a child sex ring being run out of Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria based in Washington D.C. The theory prompted outrage and quickly spread across 4chan, 8chan, Reddit and Twitter. This prompted a man from North Carolina to travel to the restaurant with a rifle, determined to uncover a paedophile, human trafficking organisation. The man fired the weapon inside the crowded pizza restaurant. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. But the case illustrated the danger of misinformation and social media outrage online.^[3]

[P1] Social media outrage allows misinformation to flourish. [P2] Misinformation is detrimental to society. [P3] Therefore, social media outrage is detrimental to our society.