There are better ways of convincing non involved participants than debate, especially it’s an argument around human rights, bigotry, transphobia, racism etc. Getting in to a debate normalises the idea that “both sides” of these arguments have similar validity and value.

When you debate you are almost never going to convince the other person

Why not? Are you that bad at it?

the goal is to convince the audience

That goes only for trolls and politicians (no, I did not say whether or not a difference exists)

Often enough, their viewpoints have been discredited already. To me, it’s rarely worth the effort of disputing bunk information if it’s clearly wrong and the person writing it is not engaging in good faith. I know some people enjoy debating, but I prefer to save my sanity most of the time.