I coined the term “perpetual culture of outrage” several years ago, to describe how FB encourages and feeds upon outrage.

My thesis has since been confirmed by internal FB documents.

Behind the scenes, Facebook programmed the algorithm that decides what people see in their news feeds to use the reaction emoji as signals to push more emotional and provocative content — including content likely to make them angry. Starting in 2017, Facebook’s ranking algorithm treated emoji reactions as five times more valuable than “likes,” internal documents reveal. The theory was simple: Posts that prompted lots of reaction emoji tended to keep users more engaged, and keeping users engaged was the key to Facebook’s business.

Source: Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation