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Trending
In-depth reporting on the world of social media.
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190 episodes
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Colombia’s guerrilla recruitment video problem
Fighters from dissident armed groups in Colombia are using TikTok to glorify their lives as guerrillas and recruit youngsters.
These armed group...
The Kenyan influencer championing climate denial
Jusper Machogu is a farmer from southwestern Kenya who describes himself as a “climate sceptic”: he wrongly claims that climate change is a “scam” or...
Is Russia targeting Poland's farmers’ protests?
Farmers' protests have been erupting across Europe, and on February 20th one image from a protest in Poland went viral. It showed a tractor carrying a...
Love and deception in the age of AI
In a viral thread posted on X in January this year, a 23-year-old Russian man claims he used ChatGPT to filter through and chat thousands of women on...
Long Covid: Think yourself well?
Long Covid can ruin lives, and scientists are striving to understand the condition and beginning to get some early clues about possible treatments. Wh...
The anti-vax candidate?
In 2024 yet another Kennedy is making a bid for the White House. Robert F Kennedy Jr - nephew of the late President John F Kennedy - is enjoying stron...
Democracy on the brink in Tunisia?
In 2011, Tunisians took to the streets against the ruling authoritarian regime. Catalysed by social media, the protests would reverberate around the w...
The new fight for land rights
In Malaysian Borneo, indigenous people have struggled for land rights against companies and the state. Using new mapping technology, communities in Bo...
Fear and conspiracies in Las Vegas
Marianna Spring talks to a survivor of the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 about how posts on a social media account made him question an event he’...
The disinformation war in the Middle East
"A flood of disinformation has erupted across social media in the online propaganda battle that’s being waged alongside the physical conflict between...
The Mexican mayor and a deepfake scandal
When an audio recording alleged to be from the Mayor of one of the world's largest cities started circulating online, reality was called into question...
Crude fakes in Uganda
A BBC investigation has uncovered a network of fake social media accounts seemingly working together to promote the Ugandan government and the East Af...
Serbia’s real life ‘bots’
Over the summer, a mysterious Twitter persona published details of over 14,500 social media accounts - all of them controlled by real-life Serbian cit...
Exposing people smugglers
People smugglers are selling illegal routes out of Pakistan to Europe on social media.
We’ve gone undercover with BBC Newsnight and BBC Urdu to...
The Voice: conspiracies and Australia's referendum
Earlier in October, Australia took to the polls in a referendum and rejected the establishment of an indigenous advisory body in the constitution - th...
Trolled by a life coaching cult
A life coaching group has been accused of trolling former members.
Lighthouse International Group promises to help people realise their dreams a...
Inside America’s political battleground
Mike Wendling and Maxine Hughes explore how extreme conspiracies and right wing rhetoric went mainstream in America. From the Proud Boys' Enrique Tarr...
India's latest 'love trap'
Videos taken across India are going viral on social media. They show hordes of men harassing and even attacking young couples in the street.
Th...
TikTok frenzies
TikTok started as an app for posting lip syncs and dance videos, but quickly developed into a platform where users can follow along world events, crim...
How to exit the manosphere
You may have heard about how young men are being drawn into the so-called ‘manosphere’ but how can they escape?
Can subreddits such as #IncelEx...
The germ deniers
Conspiracy theories about viruses and vaccines have exploded in recent years. At the same time, something arguably stranger has spiralled…groups onlin...
The AI ghosts haunting TikTok
In a gruesome new trend, TikTok has been flooded with videos in which AI-generated versions of real life child murder victims tell the stories of how...
Venezuelan deepfakes and propaganda
Earlier this year videos made using artificial intelligence caused a stir in Venezuela. Many Venezuelans would have thought they were real news report...
Who’s trolling successful Asian women?
Jiayang Fan was targeted by trolls while her mother was dying, and again when they learned of her death.
The New Yorker writer is one of several...
Trolled by a life coaching cult
A life coaching group has been accused of trolling former members.
Lighthouse International Group promises to help people realise their dreams a...
Ghouling: The trolls targeting bereaved people
Since the Covid vaccines were rolled out, a trend has sprung up – of accounts online linking virtually any death or illness, of a celebrity, athlete o...
Brazil’s real life trolls
In one of the dirtiest electoral campaigns in Brazil's history, figures on the left and right of the political spectrum trolled their opponents with j...
Twitter ‘ninjas’ against climate denial
Climate-denying trolls, beware: a group of internet vigilantes is coming for you.
They call themselves “Team Ninja Trollhunters”: a ragtag grou...
Myanmar’s digital battleground
Burmese women have been at the forefront of the resistance against the military junta ever since Myanmar lurched back into a dictatorship in 2021. Onl...
Elon Musk's Twitter storm
Since the world’s richest man bought Twitter last year, more than half the workforce has been sacked and scores of users previously banned for breakin...
How humanitarian crises are exploited online
We investigate the money-making schemes that spring up on platforms like TikTok in the wake of conflict.
First - the war in Ukraine saw a wave o...
Cash for conspiracy theories
If promoting harmful conspiracy theories can be a lucrative way to make money, then is the best way for victims to fight back by hitting those respons...
Akon’s Wakanda and a crumbling crypto dream
The R’n’B singer Akon has had an incredibly successful music career, with a number of smash hits and legions of fans.
Recently the singer launch...
Med beds: Miracle cure or misinformation?
The lack of science around 'med beds' - miracle devices with magical healing properties - has not stopped people from shelling out thousands of dollar...
SafeMoon and the chaotic world of crypto
SafeMoon promised its investors a trip to the moon but instead cost some their life savings. We speak to the YouTuber Coffeezilla who investigated th...
India’s anti-MLM movement
The past few years gave way to a boom in the number of people joining direct selling schemes in India who were lured in by the false promise of riches...
The influencer and the insider: Chinmark's demise
In 2020 the Chinmark Group appeared to be a thriving Nigerian business empire, endorsed by a string of popular influencers online. It sold investment...
The 'Alan MacMasters’ toaster hoax
For more than a decade, he tricked the world into believing a Scottish scientist called Alan MacMasters invented the electric toaster in 1893. At the...
Roe v Wade: The next battle
Since the overturning of Roe versus Wade, dozens of US abortion clinics have closed their doors. Now efforts to provide abortion information and acces...