A video of a woman explaining that her 14-month-old is transgender, was born a boy and now uses “she/her” pronouns is circulating on social media again after going viral several months ago.
The clip appears to have been shared as if it is real, with the caption: “WTF is wrong with these people.”
But the clip isn’t genuine—it’s actually satirical “rage bait”, intended to provoke and generate engagement.
The clip, which was posted to TikTok but has been reposted on Facebook, features a woman with her baby, and the caption “Meet my transgender baby born a boy but now identifies as a girl”.
When we previously wrote about this video back in February, we found that one Facebook post featuring it had been viewed more than 12 million times.
But the creator has confirmed she made the video as “click bait rage bait”—the name given to satirical content intended to provoke outrage online, by tapping into contentious topics.
The TikTok creator behind the video, who appears to have since deleted her account, told the Lancashire Evening Post in February: “The video is satire click bait rage bait or whatever you want to call it and the response to it goes to show the state the world is in to believe anything like this could be remotely true.”
She also described the video in a different clip as an example of “how you successfully rage bait”.
Content creators often post rage bait on social media to aggravate users and generate engagement, often visible in the comment section.
Before engaging with a video that seems too outrageous to be true, it’s best to consider if the person posting it might be fanning the flames deliberately.
We have a toolkit that can help you better navigate misleading content online.