The "algorithm doesn't know the difference" thing is real but I don't think dunking on a bad take helps it much, at least not the way people say. Feeds care way more about time spent and comments than they do about whether you meant it as a joke. A quick roast is a blip. Some guy writing five paragraphs breaking down why it's dumb is the thing that keeps people arguing in the replies for hours.

I ran into the same thing with my city a couple years back, the police site said crime was down 8% but the FBI data had it up slightly. Turns out the local page was only counting calls that turned into full reports, not every call for service. I usually go with the FBI numbers since they're at least using the same rules across cities, even if they're a bit behind.