‘Rage bait’ is the Oxford Word of the Year, showing how social media is manufacturing anger

December 16, 2025 – 5:45 PM

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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Oxford Dictionary has named “rage bait” its Word of the Year. The quantity of live-streamed drama in 2025 has made it clear that outrage is now fuelling much online content.

death of French streamer Raphaël Graven

, alias Jean Pormanove, was particularly striking in this respect. Before dying live on Kick after streaming for 298 hours, Graven had been subjected to humiliating scenes and psychological abuse from two co-streamers, according to an

Médiapart

Although the recording of the live stream leading up to his death is no longer available, excerpts from previous broadcasts that show Pormanove being ridiculed or mistreated continue to circulate online.

A Q&A with Jean Pormanove in July 2021. He reveals a side of himself that is sometimes awkward, but also touching. (YouTube).

As an associate professor and doctoral student at UQAM’s École des médias (School of Media), I closely study the dynamics that shape digital platforms. Increasingly, platforms use rage bait to turn anger into a tool for attracting attention and advancing their commercial goals.

The Kick platform, comparable to Twitch,

has been blamed for Graven’s death

, and rightly so. A lack of moderation and the encouragement of gambling and games of chance are among the most frequent criticisms directed at it.

The aftermath of Graven’s death

Just a few days after Graven’s death,

23-year-old Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death

The fascination with Zarutska’s slaying is nothing new. What’s more unusual, and turns this into rage bait, is how it was exploited.

Conservative YouTuber Benny Johnson

One example is the sequence depicting the

the president of the United States as a “king” flying over a “No Kings” protests

and dropping a brown liquid resembling excrement onto the crowd.

Word of the Year

In this highly charged context,

rage bait became Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year

, with its use reportedly tripling over the last 12 months. The

term is defined as

Oxford Words of the Year have been linked to digital culture for several years now. In 2022, it was

“goblin mode,”

in 2023,

“rizz”

won the vote and in 2024, it was

“brain rot.”

This year, more than 30,000 people voted to elect the 2025 Word of the Year. The term was in competition with “

aura farming

” — cultivating one’s aura — and

“biohack”

, a set of practices aimed at optimizing the health and performance of the body and mind through changes in lifestyle, diet and technology.

From click bait to rage bait

From online clickbait, we are now moving towards rage bait, with the same objective: to gain online visibility.

The problem lies not only with content creators who use this type of bait, but also with social media platforms themselves. A decade ago, platforms were described as echo chambers, spaces where users were exposed almost exclusively to content that confirmed their interests, opinions and beliefs. It’s getting harder to say that today.

Zuckerberg is seeking to reconnect

with the American Republican political class, while

Chew is attempting to maintain TikTok’s access to the American market

, which is under threat from legislative pressure. This new approach is leading to the emergence of digital spaces where controversial content, particularly rage bait, is acceptable.

TikTok

claims to prohibit

bloody or disturbing content, even if it is in the public interest, in addition to having a mission to

“inspire creativity and bring joy.”

But this type of content generates engagement. As a result, it circulates and continues to be recommended. It remains visible thanks to its profitability.

This paradox lies at the heart of the problem: different platforms say they want to limit violence, but they profit from the elements that make violence go viral. So we’re therefore trapped in an ecosystem where outrage becomes an economic resource and where the most intense emotions fuel visibility.

A profound change in the web

In this sense, the shift from clickbait to rage bait is not just an evolution in visibility techniques. It highlights a profound change in social media.

In light of France’s

commission of inquiry into the psychological effects of TikTok on minors

The recent Words of the Year illustrate an online environment where mental exhaustion, numbness and outrage have become commonplace. Graven’s death reminds us that human lives are caught up in systems that turn vulnerability into spectacle and suffering into a product.

Laurence Grondin-Robillard

, Professeure associée à l’École des médias et doctorante en communication,

Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

The Conversation

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