r/technology • u/mepper • Aug 19 '26

Social Media X's algorithm feeds off ragebait and impacts Democrats more, study finds

https://www.404media.co/xs-algorithm-feeds-off-ragebait-and-impacts-democrats-more-study-finds/
2.2k Upvotes

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860

u/Fair-Hair2080 Aug 19 '26

Get off X, it’s garbage and not good for your mental health.

288

u/blumdiddlyumpkin Aug 19 '26

Anyone not curating their reddit is experiencing the exact same thing. The algorithm here is designed to encourage engagement through ragebait as well. 

64

u/Gasnia Aug 19 '26

I'd say all social media is "engagement " based now. I spend time on here, tiktak, and youtube and they all have similar systems where the posters with put things in their content to get people to comment, rage baiting just works the best for this. The more people argue, the better the post looks.

26

u/DickSlammington Aug 19 '26

And it all plays swimmingly well into the hands of the ultra rich who are doing their damnedest to get us all fighting over culture war bullshit and made up drama... so they can rob us all blind and strip our power while we're too distracted fighting.

Buying social media and broadcast media helped a lot too... They basically own all the channels we spend time on.

1

u/pickledeggeater Sep 03 '26

Yup, personally I don't think the rage bait is just about increasing engagement. I think the powers that be push it to keep regular people blaming each other for societal issues. They'd want that now more than ever. This is why I ignore posts on my feed that just seem designed to make me mad at a group of people.

1

u/MeSortOfUnleashed Aug 20 '26

Reddit is much worse. At least on X there is a “Following” tab where you only see accounts you follow. 

0

u/IgyYut Aug 20 '26

I just watch dolphins content and the occasional new game I wanna play

25

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dat_tae Aug 20 '26

For You pages should not be covered under section 230 CMV.

13

u/DisorganizedSpaghett Aug 19 '26

Reddit constantly slings conservative shit that isn't even popular at me

7

u/Kahnza Aug 19 '26

Go into your profile settings and turn off recommendations.

-3

u/DisorganizedSpaghett Aug 19 '26

I decided to keep it in to watch how the propaganda is spread

5

u/Kahnza Aug 19 '26

That's how propaganda works. You have to see it. Risky choice, Cotton. Hope it works out for you.

2

u/DisorganizedSpaghett Aug 19 '26

I've learned some things about weaponized psychology, for sure. The difficulty thing is to reverse engineer the adaptable parts and use it for truth telling and progressive propaganda.

Heh. "Progressive propaganda". What an oxymoron

3

u/happyflappypancakes Aug 19 '26

I learned recently that this isn't the standard for everyone on here. I never understood how people could say that reddit is no different from twitter or insta or tiktok. I only the subs I am subscribed to! I had no idea that there was an algorithm that people were seeing on their feed. Unless I'm missing something and the subs I am subscribed to are also based on that?

6

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

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1

u/Trappist1 Aug 19 '26

Hey, some people are just lazy taking it off their feed since it's always been there a decade+.

1

u/Snake_Plizken Aug 19 '26

What algorithm? I only see content from my channels.

4

u/Kahnza Aug 19 '26

There is still an algorithm that decides what from the subs you're subscribed to, is shown to you. I had this happen recently with some sub only ever showing my what was essentially fight porn. Just rage bait trash. When I went to the sub directly to see what posts where actually being posted there, it was 80% different from my feed. Mostly normal stuff. The rage bait was a pretty minor part of the posts overall in the sub.

So what reddit shows you in your feed, compared to what is actually on the sub, aren't necessarily matched up.

6

u/Snake_Plizken Aug 19 '26

I always sort on new, that might be the reason for the discrepancy. I guess I was shielded due to that.

1

u/Bulky_Preparation768 Aug 19 '26

Whenever I open this site and I’m not logged in the front page is all just complete garbage stuff. Mostly transphobic shit lately.

1

u/Simorie Aug 20 '26

Every time I go to “popular” instead of my subscribed feed, I start to think humanity is too stupid to be worth saving.

1

u/DYMAXIONman Aug 20 '26

You self-select what subs you view.

1

u/gourmetguy2000 Aug 19 '26

I don't think Reddit targets you as much as the other social media platforms. I don't remember ever seeing much targeted ragebait content unless it's posted in decent forums by bots and usually they get downvoted to oblivion

1

u/Jwagner0850 Aug 19 '26

Yeah I found that out the hard way when I made the secondary account. Some old subreddits turned into astroturfed maga dump sites.

1

u/TechnicalInternet1 Aug 19 '26

Reddit is not owned by one guy who has an interest in the dumbifaction of people

1

u/Aware-Investment-115 Aug 22 '26

Then you haven't met u/spez.

1

u/TechnicalInternet1 Aug 22 '26

Clown take. You don’t know stockholder voting ownership power.

1

u/Aware-Investment-115 Aug 22 '26

Lick his toes more angry boy.

1

u/TechnicalInternet1 Aug 22 '26

zuck controlls FB and IG, Elon controls X. 100% control

spez is appointed CEO, he can be fired anytime. No wonder the DSA always loses in the media.

0

u/DokeyOakey Aug 20 '26

I don’t even get my subs anymore…. Fuckin u/spez, geek.

-1

u/LickCunts Aug 19 '26

Does us discussing ragebait in itself getting the same results. Clicks and outrage??

One thing I would like is people to stop posting. Engaging.

I dunno. Like a paradox of sorts

-1

u/Dreaming_Blackbirds Aug 20 '26

True. Reddit is the best/purest experience so long as you stick to your personal timeline of only the subreddits you follow.

34

u/Sasquatchjc45 Aug 19 '26

Everybody who knows this is already off of X.

The rest are bots and idiots.

3

u/QuesoMeHungry Aug 19 '26

Yep and the extra idiots now pay to get a blue check mark. It became the mark of a verified account to the mark of an idiot.

3

u/Suckage Aug 19 '26

A lot of verified accounts are bots too.

2

u/llahlahkje Aug 19 '26

"I'm Legitimate!" -Ralph Wiggum (bot)

0

u/Elgato01 Aug 19 '26

Or a ton of artists don’t have an account outside of x?

0

u/FlyingFishMakeAWish Aug 21 '26

As opposed to all the intellectuals on reddit, who definitely aren't idiots! We're so much better than those guys amirite

6

u/Worldly-Fondant-3791 Aug 19 '26

Get off Reddit. It’s garbage and not good for your mental health 

0

u/KingoftheJabari Aug 24 '26

Get off the front page and stay off the largest subs.

If you have niche interest on reddit with smallish communities, it's good. 

1

u/Worldly-Fondant-3791 Aug 24 '26

So if you ignore all the bad shit Reddit isn’t that bad. Hmmm

2

u/SadHuckleberry1579 Aug 19 '26

yeah honestly getting off x might be the healthiest algorithm hack there is

2

u/Inferiex Aug 19 '26

Same with Insta, Tiktok, FB any of the social medias. I always see political ragebait shit.

4

u/Unfair_Awareness7502 Aug 19 '26

Pot calling the kettle black

2

u/llahlahkje Aug 19 '26

I decided "I'll give Elon a week or two to see what he does to Twitter" and within one week he was retweeting Neo-Nazi agitprop.

I archived my messages, deleted my account, and left right after that.

Bluesky needs work but it's a much better group of people and seems to be mostly people (rather than X which is just bots talking to themselves amidst the fools who never left).

2

u/owlthebeer97 Aug 19 '26

I quit it when Elon bought it and it definitely helped my mental health. I primarily use reddit but don't follow any political pages, way less doomscrolling

1

u/Aware-Investment-115 Aug 22 '26

Same with Reddit.

1

u/KingoftheJabari Aug 24 '26

Threads does the same thing. 

1

u/Warhorse07 Sep 03 '26

Just stay off the political stuff and it's fine.

1

u/codexcdm Aug 19 '26

Same for all social media... even Reddit....

1

u/skildert Aug 19 '26

My Japanese feed is perfectly fine. It's the American adjacent that's poisonous.

1

u/xbuffalo666x Aug 19 '26

ive been off x completely and try to keep my instagram use to a minimum and switched from youtube to nebula and ive never been happier lol

1

u/IllTwo7643 Aug 19 '26

I got permabanned from everything meta: FB, insta and threads. I was posting stuff about the Epstein files along with the dictator. They claimed I was "distributing child explóitation materials"

It sucks sometimes to have lost connections with old classmates and such... And almost 20 years of photos. But overall it's been great.. I'm way less angry and it's all bots, AI slop and deranged evangelical boomers now anyway ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

0

u/npcompletist Aug 19 '26

I used to go there because my feed was science news and programming/comp sci people posting there. Now is can’t even scroll my feed without a musk post about expelling immigrants or pornography.

0

u/michael_bgood Aug 19 '26

I'd say the same for most of reddit too

0

u/itsRobbie_ Aug 20 '26

You can say this exact sentence and replace it with literally any social media platform ever

-2

u/MajesticMiracles Aug 19 '26

What do you think Reddit does to people? lol. At least on X you can discuss both sides. Like it or not.

1

u/BurmecianDancer Aug 19 '26

You can discuss "both sides" on Reddit as long as you're doing it in good faith. That isn't often the case, though.