214: The Anger Algorithm: Why People Are Being Attacked Online and How to Protect Yourself

Is it just me, or does it seem like there's a lot more anger these days on social media? Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast, where you use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. This week on the podcast, the Anger Algorithm, why it seems that people are angrier nowadays and what could be behind it. Last week, someone sent me a text asking if I saw 60 Minutes. They did a piece called Anger in America, and they were discussing how social media has created this combative ecosystem nowadays. And a lot of it has to do with these social media platforms. The 60 Minutes Bill Whitaker had interviewed advocates for why the social network is becoming such a dangerous place and such an angry place. He interviewed professors, he interviewed someone from Facebook. And the takeaway, the main thesis was that this enraging inflammatory rhetoric goes viral for a reason. Because social media platforms favor enraged behavior. The more people speak, the more angrier they get online, the more reason that they have to be angrier online. It's. The algorithm works with that type of rhetoric. So when dissent happens on social media, it tends to go viral. I'm putting a link to the episode into that segment, into the show notes, because I do think everyone should watch it, but I absolutely think you should watch it too, is if you, you work for a company, you're involved in communication, you might be a leader or a CEO, or you could be someone that says or has said to me personally, I hate social media. I don't want to deal with it. This is why I hate it. People come after me, they're angry at me, and I just hate it. And after this week on social media, I get it because I was attacked on social media. So I have a whole new perspective and a whole new understanding of how my clients are feeling. So moving on from the 60 Minutes piece about why the algorithm and the technology, you know, just kind of favors people who like to spread hate. Or if it's not hate, it's just anger or it's controversial. It's the type of prompts that get people talking, right. At its worst, it's just vile behavior. At its mediocre, it's kind of snarky behavior. And a lot of the just good, average communication just doesn't get picked up nowadays. Like, people don't care about it. And these social media platforms are just rewarding the people who are attacking people. That's just how it is. So after watching that 60 Minutes piece, you know, I've. I'VE touched base with almost all my clients this week. And we were, you know, and discussed that, you know, especially clients who are under attack and they're dealing with, you know, these kind of mob mentality and these groundswells of angry people. And I came at it at a much deeper level because of the 60 Minutes piece, but now I have a much greater appreciation for it because I was put on full blast last week on social media on TikTok. Ironic, as I was writing a crisis communication plan about a social media crisis and helping a client going through one because they're under attack and they're completely raw about it. I could just see it whenever I see them. On Zoom. I had posted a TikTok about a woman who was shamed online, and she was outed online because she had fat shamed a woman at an airport, and she had called their names. She filmed it, and then she posted it online, which is playing with the most dangerous fire that you can do. Well, not surprising. That video went viral. She was called out. And people do what they do on the Internet, they love to suss out who people are and expose them and expose their name and then, you know, shame them online and get a very public shaming. And that's what happened to her. And she responded with another kind of clapback video where she was ranting and raving about how people exposed her and the reason why she was so angry. And I had picked up on that video because I was tagged on all these videos. So I'd been following it, you know, that day. And one thing that I noted on there is how she had talked about she was so angry because she didn't have any food, and that's why she was targeting that woman. Now, that is not an excuse to target that woman, not even by a long shot. But what she was doing was ranting about her lack of food because she was a celiac. Okay? So by her saying that now, she connected with me because I'm a celiac, and I can be a ranting, raving, hangry celiac myself. Okay? And I tried very clumsily to highlight this video for an advocacy post for people who suffer from severe eating allergies, celiacs, diabetics, you know, people who travel, they really struggle with travel. So I was taking this post where she was harassing and abusing this woman and using it for advocacy on another disability. And I received a lot of negative blowback from it. And a lot of people understood it, though. And I think what happened when I do the hot wash on it, I learned a lot. Because as I said to a client today, with every crisis, there's an opportunity for learning. And I certainly learn something because what I did, what I failed to do, is one, I should have never posted it because it was too clumsy of a connection to make. I was just opening the door for people to take it out of context, which is exactly what happened. So that happened. So I never should have posted it. And two, it was too hard to draw that line. It wasn't linear to talk about a woman who is harassing and abusing this woman and fat shaming her. Because no matter how I said it, it still sounded like I was justifying what she was doing, and I wasn't. I'd stated that multiple over and over. I'm not justifying it, but I just want to highlight one thing that she was talking about. It was too clumsy. And the third piece of it was just putting it on TikTok because things like that go viral and people could stitch it and duet it and it gets taken out of context. So I ended up taking it down and I did a rebuttal post to admit, you know what? I was wrong. And I did my indestructible PR framework. I said, you know, I was wrong for doing it. I explained why I did it. And then I did the last piece, the promise piece, and, you know, promising to understand, like, you know, moving forward. Like, I get this now. Like, I get why it didn't. Why it didn't work. So there. So it's like doing my job, you know, in real time. But second from that, like, separate from that, is, you know, is this is. It really made me think long and hard about the concept of shaming people online, which is tied into anger, because again, like, a lot of the feedback that I was getting was like, just, you know, all this anger. Okay, now, there were a lot of people who understood it. And as I was looking at the people who understood it, it was the. Who watched the entire video, what I said, because in its full context, it did make sense. Like, you could see what was happening here. It still didn't make it right. Do not get me wrong. It still didn't make it right at all. But a mistake that I make and that many people make is that you can watch a video for 10 seconds and just comment off of 10 seconds, off of 15 seconds. It's up to the person who's posting. It's on them to communicate effectively and communicate properly. It was on me and I didn't do it even If I land the plane and my last 15 seconds, it doesn't matter if someone jumps 20 seconds before that. So that was definitely a lesson, is keeping in mind that not everybody gives a crap what you say for three minutes, or in this case, two and a half minutes. So that was another mistake compounded on it. But it really did make me think about the irony that no one mentions this. No one mentions this. So all the people who are telling me that I was awful for doing it, okay, fine, the people who stitched my video then, to use me as an example to tell me why I was wrong, okay, fine. That's part of the playground of TikTok, you know, that's how people use it. That's how people engage on TikTok. And it can be weaponized against you, certainly. So it's all fair play. But I just found it, you know, interesting that from a post where this woman was fat shaming another woman, she posts a video where everyone shames her, okay? And then everyone exposes her by saying what her name is. And then she goes on and gets angry because all these people hurt her and breached her privacy. Which then when she started talking about the celiac piece is what was a trigger for me. Because there was another post of a guy who was knocking this woman for having celiac disease and saying, what? You can't travel? Like there's more gluten free options out there than there ever were. Like, you can't find food. And that was my trigger, okay? That I thought, well, who's this guy? You don't have the disability. You don't know what are you talking about? Right? So everyone is doing the same thing, right? And the people who are calling me out, they're doing the same thing. You're shaming me for picking up on something that someone else did who shames someone else who shames someone else, you know, And I don't think that should be lost. Now, I'm not saying anything is right or wrong here, but I am saying it's something to think about, right? That shame is part of that anger algorithm that social media feeds off of this type of behavior, of shaming people. And what is the third rail of shaming? And the answer is, I don't know. I don't know. Well, I know one part of it. Fat shaming. Filming someone and fat shaming them, making fun of them and then posting it to social media, that would be a third rail. That is wrong. Coming out of a dorm and telling a black ra, calling her the N word and Beating her up, you know, that's a third rail. Absolutely. When people are abused and we get into that area of abuse, I mean, that is definitely the third rail of it. So there should be no discussion there. But as we just think about how people use social media and think about how the algorithm is set up for anger, it's set up for people who are enraged, and that's what it favors. And what is the shame line? When is it okay to shame and when is it not? When is it not? When is being a vigilante good? And if you're calling someone out and naming who they are because they've done such a horrible thing, when is that okay and when is it? And the truth is, I don't know the answer to that. I think that's a line that moves every single day. It's just something that needs to be explored. Because one person outing a person who's fat shamed someone and is just picking on them and abusing them, that's one person's outrage. But another person could, you know, share a video of their best friend in high school and let that go viral and shame them, and maybe they get inspired because of this anger algorithm. So every week in the podcast, I leave one indestructible tip. It's that easy to leave behind tip to help you protect and build an indestructible reputation. And it's this. Don't go on social media. I'm kidding. That's not what it is. That's not what it is at all. But it's this. Of course, it's always to think twice before you post anything. Think about who you're hurting, who you're potentially hurting. That's definitely one of them. But find a way to hack the anger algorithm if you can, and that's by being good. And granted, social media doesn't favor that. It doesn't mean you're going to get the highest views, you're going to get the most shares, you're going to get the most engagement. You might get barely any. But it doesn't mean that people aren't going to see it and be inspired by it. Being good, doing good things, spreading goodwill when you're wrong, admitting that you're wrong, allowing people to admit that they're wrong, giving people the grace to. To admit that they're wrong and not piling on people who do that. Try to look at social media instead of a coliseum, look at it as a town square of people cooperating with people and helping people and spreading good in people. And if there are lessons to be learned and there are plenty people make mistakes every day. People do awful things every day. We can learn from people who make mistakes and do horrible things things. Let's try and keep it in a learning environment. Let's try and remember that everyone has struggles that many people don't know about. Now is a time to learn more about ableism, disabilities, racism, abuse. Let's notice more marginalized people who are struggling online and let's lift their voices and let's try and spread goodness. Let's try and spread the bright side of life instead of shaming people all the time and feeding into that anger algorithm. Let's try and set good standards for people. Let's try and just be better and even if you don't get the views even if you don't get the engagement that's okay. It just feels better to be better. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.