What is an outrage engine?
An outrage engine is the self-reinforcing system by which platforms amplify content that provokes anger, because anger reliably drives the engagement those platforms are built to maximize.
An outrage engine is not a person or a policy. It is an emergent property of any system that optimizes for engagement, because the content that most reliably produces engagement is the content that makes us feel something strong — and anger is the strongest, cheapest, fastest feeling to produce.