An exclusive investigation by BBC Trending looks at the YouTubers who are promoting academic cheating online. More than 250 popular YouTube channels have been paid to advertise Edubirdie, an essay-writing company. Many of the adverts, which collectively have had hundreds of millions of views, urge students to hire a “super smart nerd” to write their essays. It’s not illegal, but students caught handing in other people’s work can face serious consequences. So are the video stars misusing their...

When a Democrat Met a Republican: how an innovative project called Better Angels facilitates conversations between people from the left and the right at a time when the ideological divide in America is said to be at its greatest. Anisa Subedar reports. There are fears in Puerto Rico that the statistics authority is about to lose its independence, as the government has developed a money saving plan to strip it of its independent board. While the Caribbean island recovers from a debt...

As reporting on the ground in Syria becomes increasingly difficult, a disinformation war rages. We reveal a network of influential Twitter accounts, some with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, which push conspiracy theories. Plus, against a backdrop of rising knife attacks in the UK, have social networks changed the nature of street violence? Understanding the way we think about our finances can help us to spend more carefully and save more efficiently, says economist Dan...

Is a tough new law in Germany aimed at blocking hate speech in danger of limiting free speech? We hear how comedians are having their jokes taken down in a “culture of deletion”. The World Health Organisation says 95% of people in cities breathe unsafe air, but what is meant by 'unsafe'? Plus, Mount Etna in Italy has reportedly moved by 14mm, but who is doing the measuring and how can it be accurate? We all fantasise – the dream home, a fulfilling job, our perfect partner. But some...

London’s murder rate is on the rise – and for the first time ever it has just overtaken New York’s, according to a number of media outlets. But is it true, and is it appropriate to compare between the two cities? North Korea has strict regulations about what types of information can be accessed by citizens inside the country, so why is it allowing overseas photographers to set up YouTube channels about some aspects of everyday life there? Plus, why is the internet being cut off again and...

Fact and fiction: how does the murder rate within popular crime series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, set in 1920’s Melbourne, compare with the real life murder rate at that time? We delve into the archives. After revelations about Facebook and the data firm Cambridge Analytica, there’s been a surge in people talking about privacy and social media. How can you keep your personal information secure? Plus more on the student gun control movement in America. Also, to what extent is it...

A special report from Washington, where thousands of students are marching in favour of stricter gun control laws. BBC Trending has been following three student activists affected by gun violence. The students are demanding bans on powerful semi-automatic rifles and a comprehensive raft of measures to stop school shootings. Vladimir Putin has won a second consecutive and fourth overall term as the Russian President with official polling results from the election showing he received over...

A BBC Trending investigation has found huge inconsistencies in how YouTube deals with neo-Nazi hate music. These are songs - many from punk and hardcore bands active in the 80s and 90s – which have found a new life in online videos, using extreme violent language and imagery to advocate murder and violence against minority groups. Whenever Donald Trump talks about trade, he points to the US trade balance, claiming America has a trade deficit with almost every country in the world. We...

Tim Harford pays tribute to a sporting legend - Sir Roger Bannister, the first person to run one mile in less than 4 minutes, who has died at the age of 88. After his record broke the ‘impossible’ psychological barrier, motivational speakers claimed the power of positive thinking soon helped dozens of runners to break the four-minute record, but what are the true figures? A BBC investigation has found that a fake blog and fake social media accounts were created to support the campaign of...

How do you fake a trend on Twitter? “Grilled Lamb Delivery” was trending recently – but why would so many people talk about something so routine and mundane? As it turns out, one of the top trends in Saudi Arabia was being promoted by automated accounts – or “bots”. And it wasn’t an isolated occurrence.This week we find out how companies make it look like lots of real people are talking about a subject online. And what it means for Twitter’s list of top trends. Are Hollywood films...

After a shooting at a high school in Florida killed 17 people student’s across the United States of America have mobilised on social media. They’re calling for change using online organising tools and taking to the streets. The gun control debate is a familiar cycle, powerful forces in favour of keeping existing laws make it difficult for change to be passed and after the first initial shock news agencies often move on. So will the students manage to keep the momentum for change...

Patrik Hermansson, a Swedish researcher for the British anti-racist group Hope Not Hate, infiltrated far right groups and spent months undercover. His operation now over, he tells his story, including seeing violence and death in Charlottesville, Virginia - the culmination of the ideologies he had witnessed throughout his time with the alt-right. Can you fit a guide to questioning dubious statistics on the back of a postcard? Tim Harford gives it a try. He wants us to be curious: asking,...

Why has there been a disturbing rise in internet pranks that simulate real life attacks? In an exclusive interview, we hear from YouTuber Arya Mosallah, who had his channel terminated after some of his videos - which some thought resembled acid attacks - were removed from the site. And we look at the ethics and morals of the people making videos in the pranking genre. There’s a stereotype of Russia as a nation of vodka-swilling hard drinkers – but is that idea out of date? The Russian...

Why is the far right so obsessed with Sweden? Despite seeming to be unlikely territory with its reputation for progressive social policies, reports about crime and immigration in Sweden routinely go viral on internet chat forums, Facebook and Twitter. And what links do Swedish activists have with the global alt-right? A key pledge of the Chinese President Xi Jinping is that China will have eradicated poverty by 2020. It’s an extraordinary claim, but China does have a good track record in...

Is the US census under threat? The United States are due to run their next nationwide census in 2020, but already critics are warning that under funding and a proposed question about citizenship could affect the accuracy of its results. Some conspiracy theories spread like wildfire online, despite the truth really being out there (and easily searchable) so what makes people continue to share conspiracies on social media? Why are more and more people giving up all food produced from...

The past and future of fake news – what can be done about social media misinformation and what impact does it have around the world? Mike Wendling asks a panel of experts from Buzzfeed, the Poynter Institute, and First Draft News. Economists rely on data to describe what is happening in a country’s economy, such as the unemployment rate, average wages, and the number of people in poverty. But how individuals manage their money gives a different picture. Rachel Schneider, co-author of The...

The meaning of the term “fake news” has been completely transformed – so what does it mean now, and is the phrase even useful at all? How Louis Bachelier scooped economists by half a century. A forgotten French mathematician’s unusual approach to the stock market. He anticipated both Einstein's theories and the application of maths to the stock market and his ideas were rediscovered decades after his death. Why high levels of noise affects all of us. David Baker explores how different...

There are golfers who could go an entire lifetime without getting a hole-in-one. Recently the BBC reported a pair of amateur players who each scored one - one after the other. It was reported widely that there was a 1 in 17 million chance of this happening. We speak to maths writer, Rob Eastaway, who explains the difficulties of trying to work out the chances. Why do people hear voices in their head - like Rachel Waddingham who hears three-year-old Blue, 11-year-old Elfie and a panel of...

The numbers we need to describe the world around us are getting bigger. Maths author Rob Eastaway explains the names for successive sizes of computer storage space and makes the case for a new giant unit of measurement: the Brontobyte. We review recent developments in social media, such as the rise of 4Chan, and look ahead to the changes we can expect to see online in 2018. And why are we creatures of habit? Doing everyday tasks without thinking frees our brains for more complicated...

The New York Times claims that Donald Trump drinks ‘a dozen’ Diet Cokes a day. At 42mg of caffeine per 330ml, what impact, if any, could this have on the President’s health? Jordan Dunbar speaks to experts about the effect caffeine has on your brain and talks to a high profile self-confessed Diet Coke addict in the UK. "Milkshake Duck" is internet slang for an ordinary person who is briefly cheered, but then swiftly turned upon. We explain why an 11 year old boy and his family are the...

Headlines claim that eating chocolate can protect you from developing Alzheimer’s disease. The theory is that bioactives within chocolate called flavanols can help reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and even make your brain 30 years younger! But isn’t this too good to be true? The BBC’s Head of Statistics, Robert Cuffe, investigates, How do you detect a Twitter bot? Two students in the United States have invented an online tool aimed at stopping the spread of political propaganda...

Over the last decade journalists in the US have been suspicious of the number of people who seem to have won multiple prizes on scratch cards and the lottery. We hear from a reporter and statistician who poured over data across a number of states to work out the chances of multiple wins. What happens when Twitter is your favourite platform but the company then suspends or terminates your account? The new Twitter rules meant one ‘black Twitter’ user was banned – along with many of his...

Mr Darcy, the male love interest in Jane Austen’s 19th Century English novel Pride and Prejudice is supposed to be fabulously wealthy on an income of £10,000 a year, but two hundred years later, it’s not clear how rich he really is. As Tim Harford discovers, you need to do more than adjust the amount for inflation. A BBC Trending investigation finds that part of YouTube's system for reporting sexualised comments left on children's videos has not been functioning correctly for more than a...

Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years will damage more than national pride. It will also carry a big financial cost – one estimate says Fifa stands to lose $100m. Is this really true? Also, we fact check the claim that 45% of Nigerian women marry before their 18th birthday. For the second in our special series from Russia, we trace how opposition leader Alexei Navalny has used social media to move from writing LiveJournal blogs about corruption to...

We discover how a numerical change in the way the pop music album charts are measured is causing artists to make ever longer albums. The first of two special reports into the Russian internet. For years it provided an open platform for news and discussion with vastly different content to the news presented on the largely state-run television channels. We hear how over the last few years government regulation has been building up, and the authorities have started to curtail the kind of...