Look up the 'dead internet' theory. It basically says that a majority of online content/engagement (likes/comments/follower count/etc.) is created by bots and interacted with by other bots. This loop drives up engagement which pushes all these different algorithms to say "Wow, there's a lot of views and comments on this post, this is a popular bit of content then" and then shows that content to actual humans. I'm sure there is a decent amount of negativity around the internet, those bots have to learn their patterns from something out there, but I'd venture a guess that the lion's share of things we see online is fake bait that makes everyday users believe that all the comments/content are actually coming from other real humans.
The flipside is that the internet/social media has given *everyone* a voice, even the darkest corners of humanity. There's undoubtedly hateful people using social media, but I believe that they find and generally stick to their hateful echo chambers.
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