A protest against “manspreading” went viral in Russia – but is it Russian propaganda? Activist Anna Dovgalyuk denies that she staged a stunt where a woman was filmed throwing diluted bleach at the crotches of men whose legs were sprawled out over multiple seats on the St Petersburg Metro. But media reports suggested one of the men was an actor, and a European Union website has described the film as “staged Kremlin propaganda”. So, is it real or just a hoax? And how does it fit into a larger...

In one city hit by motorbike theft, volunteers are using social media to fight back.

They decide what you can and cannot see on the world’s biggest social network. Who are Facebook’s content moderators? We speak to a woman who worked in a moderation centre in Germany, often watching violent and pornographic videos and deciding what posts should be deleted. New figures reveal that same-sex divorce rates are higher among women than among men. Tim Harford discusses why this may be with Marina Ashdade, economist at the Vancouver School of Economics and author of Dirty Money, a...

In July 2018, a disturbing video began to circulate on social media. In it two women and young children are shown being led at gunpoint by a group of soldiers. The captives are blindfolded, forced to the ground and shot 22 times. The government of Cameroon initially dismissed the video as ‘fake news’. But through open-source investigations – examining details such as buildings, shadows, and uniforms – BBC Africa found that the blame lay squarely on Cameroonian Forces. From the 10th July...

Do dieting influencers and online communities help or hurt when you’re trying to get in shape? Some find social media groups a useful source of support, but there are concerns that some of the advice might not be as healthy as it seems, and that social media celebrities are setting unhelpful and unrealistic body expectations. President Trump disputed the official figures for the death toll after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico a year ago, tweeting that the Democrats were inflating the death...

Why are some Russians put on extremist watch lists for saving or posting memes online? Maria Motuznaya was investigated by police after saving edgy memes on her account on the social network VKontakte. Hundreds of Russians are being targeted for using memes declared to be racist, offensive or against the Russian Orthodox Church. People on the list have their bank account frozen and some face criminal charges. Will a blogger’s campaign make a difference? Are you more chimp or Neanderthal?...

Facebook’s dream of a more open and connected world has turned into a nightmare in Myanmar. The price of a smartphone SIM card dropped from around $200 to $2, and Facebook quickly became the app of choice, but it failed to control hate speech against Rohingyas and had very few employees who could read Burmese. What, following criticism in a UN report, is it doing now? Is one particular model of car really the safest on the road in the UK, and how can new technology reduce road accidents...

Earlier this year, a baker in Liverpool in north-west England vented her frustration on Twitter over constantly being asked by social media influencers for free cakes. Many other businesses publicly sided with Laura Worthington, but were they being fair? We investigate the impact of influencers – people with powerful social media followings. What are the rules and ethics around advertising and promotion? What proportion of your country are immigrants? What proportion of teenage girls give...

Why are people spending real money to buy land that only exists in virtual reality? In the virtual world of Decentraland, users can build whatever they can imagine. Some hope to make a profit by trading goods and services using the social platform’s own cryptocurrency. Could this be the birth of a new virtual economy or a cryptocurrency bubble waiting to burst? Could computers do a better job than humans at exposing fake news? Tim Harford interviews Mevan Babakar of the fact-checking...

#QAnon is part of an online conspiracy theory firing up supporters of Donald Trump. We trace how it started on fringe message boards and has moved more mainstream, including to the floor of a President Trump rally. A Twitter debate erupted recently about the number of wildfires in the US and in southern Europe, so we take a look at the numbers to see whether they have increased or decreased. As usual, the story is more complicated than it appears. Psychologists describe the purpose of...

An update on American conspiracy theorists who deny that twenty-six people, mostly young children, died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. False rumours that the attacks were staged were pushed by media mogul Alex Jones, and his online news site Infowars. Big social media companies have now shut down Infowars’ and Alex Jones’ accounts. This is an update of a story that was originally broadcast in March 2017. How do you get a hashtag to trend around the world? We look at the numbers...

What’s it like to be a young YouTube star? Siblings Jaadin and Arabella Daho's lives have significantly changed since they went viral on YouTube in 2015. At just 10 and 11 years old their videos racked up 17 million views. But along with the money and fame has come abuse, both online and off. How has YouTube stardom affected these teenagers and their family? Does a baked potato contain the equivalent of 19 cubes of sugar? We look into this claim to see whether the simple spud is hiding a...

The hashtag MeToo swept across social media in 2017 as victims of sexual harassment spoke out to show how prevalent sexual harassment is within society. The trending team are joined by Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle, author Kirsty Allison, gender justice specialist Natalie Collins and from journalist and activist, Meghna Pant to discuss the movement and whether there is space for both men and women to come forward with their stories. More or Less: Getting Creative with...

What’s the future of #MeToo? In October 2017, the hashtag became a worldwide movement in the wake of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein – who denies the charges against him. In the first of a two-part series, we host a panel discussion on the fightback against sexual harassment and assault with writer Kirsty Allison, gender justice expert Natalie Collins and Washington Post columnist Megan McCardle. How do you cycle really fast? Former British Time trial champion...

A recap of the social media trends of the 2018 World Cup: how did the “beautiful game” dominate online chatter across the globe. Should we have smaller families to save the planet? We examine the claim that having children is the worst thing you can do for the environment . Caz Graham asks why people go to their school reunion, finding for some it’s the importance of being able to recount what has happened in their lives to those who were their first friends. (Image: A French fan...

How can memes be engineered to carry political messages? A team at University College, London, has found that some far-right websites and message boards have a disproportionate impact on the memes that spread on mainstream social networks. The astronomer Carl Sagan famously said that there were more stars in our Universe than grains of sand on the Earth’s beaches. But was it actually true? We try to count the nearly uncountable. Dividing people into groups is part of our social...

Five Swedish pensioners, who call themselves the “Silver Snipers”, test their aim at a professional eSports tournament, and try to prove that gaming is for everyone. Not only is gaming a hobby that connects them with their grandchildren’s generation, but it’s also helped them through some tough times in life. Is it strange that Russian football players ran such big distances during their first two games of the FIFA World Cup? We look at how they compare to other teams and what it might...

One short message led to a Twitter ban for a controversial activist – and highlighted the complicated world of transgender politics and how philosophical battles within transgender communities are playing out on social media. How many words do you need to speak a language and how many words do native speakers actually use? Reporter Beth Sagar-Fenton finds out with help from Professor Stuart Webb, and puts Tim Harford through his paces to find out how big his own English vocabulary...

Philip Cross has made hundreds of thousands of Wikipedia edits. But in the process he's angered anti-war activists and critics of Western foreign policy, who claim he's biased. So who is “Philip Cross”, the name on the account? We try to track him down. The data behind all the football World Cups since 1966: Ben Carter talks to author and Opta Sports football statistician Duncan Alexander about how the ‘beautiful game’ has changed…through numbers. Which World Cups have seen the most...

Anna Scanlon, a vegan vlogger, has filed a lawsuit for defamation after she found herself the target of abuse online . She complained to the social media companies but got little response. The forthcoming trial could have major implications for defamation online. From penguins to nematodes - is it possible to count how many animals are born in the world every day? Reporter Kate Lamble takes a trip to the zoo to find out the answer to a ten year old listener’s question. What is it about...

It is almost a year since Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain and their allies cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar. BBC Arabic journalist Owen Pinnell reveals how allegations of hacked websites, bot armies and other online dirty tricks have fuelled the ongoing tensions between the two sides. Fans of Harry Potter have been asking - just how many wizards live among us? We follow a trail of clues in J K Rowling's best-selling books to provide the definitive estimate of the wizarding...

Political parties in Mexico are being accused of using bots to influence voter behaviour before the upcoming presidential election. Who’s behind online propaganda in the country and what are the new groups trying to fight the spread of fake news ? We tackle some of our listeners’ questions from Australia: do one in seven businessmen throw out their pants after wearing them once? This is a claim made by an expert talking about clothes waste – but what does it come from? Do horses kill more...

Ex-prisoners in the US are struggling to cope with the online world after years in jail. We hear from recently released so-called juvenile lifers who find themselves grappling with social media and other aspects of life online. The prison authorities and family members have had to ease them into it – with mixed results. If you’re 6’8” in the US – what are your chances of playing professional basketball? Tim Harford looks at the likelihood that former FBI Director James Comey – or any...

Last month, ten people were killed in Toronto after a man drove a van into pedestrians. In a Facebook status before the attack, the suspect referred to an "Incel Rebellion”. "Incel" is short for "involuntarily celibate" and refers to groups of men who feel that they can't enter into sexual relationships. They frequently vent anger against sexually successful men ("Chads") and attractive women ("Stacys"). Incel forums include rants aimed at feminism and women, and some encourage violence. We...