Top Comment

Who is the man behind The Light? BBC disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring tracks down the editor of the conspiracy theory newspaper, The Light. His name is Darren and he agrees to meet Marianna in a pub just outside Manchester for a dual interview in which she interviews him for the podcast and he interviews her. What answers will she get about the paper and the man at its...

Where does all the anger come from? As Marianna delves further down the rabbit-hole, she finds herself in the alternative medicine clinic of one Totnes’ movement’s figureheads. He is one of the people behind a conspiracy-theory group in the town called the New World Alliance who are key to organising monthly rallies in the town and distributing The Light. Curiously Marianna finds herself invited a...

What do those in the movement believe? And why? BBC disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring continues her investigation into Totnes’ conspiracy theory movement after hearing about one of its prominent members: an artist named Jason Liosatos. Meeting him in his gallery she learns more about some of his beliefs and what that indicates about the movement. Host: Marianna Spring P...

What’s happening in the Devon town of Totnes? The small town of Totnes in Devon is known for its warmth and open-mindedness, gong baths and healing crystals, but a fault line has emerged between the minority who’ve been drawn in by disinformation laced with hate and those who are fighting against it. Some in the town were drawn into a conspiracy theory movement during the pandemic, one whose month...

What happened to the people who fell down the rabbit hole into a world of conspiracy theories? How far have they fallen – and how far will they go? In this 10-part series, the BBC’s Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent Marianna Spring investigates the legacy left by the rise in conspiracy movements in the UK and the media machine at its heart. The movement's followers hold a range of diff...

Marianna Spring returns to her investigation into conspiracy theories about UK terror attack victims, and reports on moves to hold those responsible for spreading them to account. Disaster Trolls revealed how people caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing suffered years of online abuse and threats as a result of false claims that they were “crisis actors” who faked the attack. In this new episod...

News breaks of a landmark US court ruling about the Sandy Hook shooting, raising the hopes of victims of conspiracy theories in the UK, in their own struggles for accountability. When a Connecticut jury orders Infowars host Alex Jones to pay almost a billion dollars in damages for the false claims he promoted, Marianna Spring is contacted by many of the people she has spoken to during the series....

Travis survived the Westminster Bridge attack, but he didn’t expect what came next. Are victims of terrorism taken seriously enough when they seek help against abusive trolling? A terror attack outside the Houses of Parliament in March 2017 left five people dead, while 50 more - including Travis - were injured. As Travis lay recovering in hospital, he opened his phone and saw a death threat that a...

Brent has disavowed the toxic conspiracy theories he helped create about the 7/7 London terror attacks. But what will happen when he meets a survivor? After years down the rabbit hole, Brent has severed his ties with the conspiracy world which has dominated much of his adult life. He recalls helping to shape false claims that the 7/7 London terror attacks in July 2005 were “false flag” operations...

Rob tried to stop his Infowars colleagues spreading conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting. Now his testimony has helped hold his former boss to account in court. Twenty of the 27 people killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, were children. But for years after the attack, Infowars host Alex Jones used his show to spread false claims that nobody died, an...

The visitor to Lisa’s boatyard appeared to be an ordinary customer. But, she was horrified to later discover the real reason he had turned up at her workplace. The man who had pretended to be interested in buying a speedboat or a jet ski, was actually the conspiracy show host Richard D Hall. Lisa was seriously injured in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing - a terror attack which Hall falsely claims...

How widespread is the belief in conspiracy theories that falsely claim UK terror attacks are faked? Marianna Spring reveals the results of a survey carried out for the BBC. There’s a moment of revelation when she talks to Alicia, a fan of Richard D Hall, to learn more about the appeal of the online conspiracy show host. We also hear how Hall’s online reach has grown during the pandemic. In this BB...

Marianna Spring finally comes face to face with Richard D Hall. Will she be able to get answers for the terror survivors targeted by his conspiracy theories? In earlier episodes, we heard how Hall has spread false claims that the Manchester Arena bombing and other terror attacks were faked or actually carried out by the government. He even boasted about placing a hidden camera outside the home of...

What sort of person spreads false claims about survivors of terror attacks? An unexpected source gives Marianna Spring the inside track on conspiracy show host Richard D Hall. Neil Sanders has moved in the same sort of conspiracy-minded circles as Hall for years. He’s been a regular guest on Hall’s show. Neil even says he probably wouldn’t have written his book without Hall’s encouragement. In thi...

Martin and his daughter suffered life-changing injuries in the Manchester Arena bombing, but one conspiracy theorist claims to have gone to great lengths to try to prove otherwise. Eve, then 14, and her father were the closest people to the blast to survive the 2017 terror attack, in which 22 people and the bomber were killed. During the months that followed, Martin was shocked to be told about fa...

Daren is haunted by his experience of the Manchester Arena bombing. So why do people taunt him with conspiracy theories which falsely claim the attack didn’t happen? On 22 May 2017, a terrorist bomb was detonated in the foyer of the arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people and the bomber. Daren, who had been in the audience with his son, rushed to help the injured. He has li...

What happens when tragedy makes you a target? Why would anybody accuse terrorism survivors of being liars and “crisis actors”? The BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring investigates how people caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing and other UK terror attacks, are targeted with extreme conspiracy theories, online abuse and threats. Some are even hunted down offline...

Citizen journalism – reporting by self-taught people, often on the ground - can play a vital role in the coverage of conflict. However, not everyone who contributes to this coverage is as 'independent'’ as they’d like their followers to believe. Roddy’s distrust of the media led him to start his own podcast. He also follows self-styled citizen journalists who are roaming around inside Ukraine. In...

On the first day of the war, Ukraine gained a new patriotic hero and Tetyana thought she had lost a son. But the story wasn't quite as it first seemed. Tetyana’s son, Roman became world famous for defiantly swearing at a Russian warship which had threatened to bomb him and his fellow border guards on Snake Island, if they didn’t surrender. A recording of the exchange went viral and the Ukrainian g...

After Russia’s first independent radio station was taken off air by the Kremlin, the journalists who worked there are finding ways to get round censorship of the war in Ukraine. Sergei Buntman helped to found Echo of Moscow which for more than three decades provided an alternative to the news on Russian state media. In the days following the invasion of Ukraine, his radio station and several other...

Marianna Vishegirskaya is the pregnant woman who has unwittingly found herself at the centre of one of the most disputed events of the war. In a previous episode we looked at how Russia falsely accused her of helping fake photos of the aftermath of its attack on a maternity hospital, in which at least three people were killed. But now Marianna has told her side of the story, after escaping the bes...

What does the invasion of Ukraine have in common with the coronavirus pandemic? On the face of it not much at all, but disinformation about the war is also fuelling existing conspiracy movements around the world. Covid denialists who claimed the pandemic was invented by a shadowy elite to impose a tyrannical global government, now believe that the conflict in Ukraine is part of the same evil plot....

When Russia bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol, it claimed that a wounded pregnant woman was faking it. Her friends told us something different. Images of Marianna Vyshemirska fleeing the aftermath of the attack caused an outcry around the world. But they were also seized upon for a furious disinformation campaign, waged by people including Russian diplomats, that sought to justify the bombin...

Masha is one of the most famous faces on Ukrainian TV and a huge social media star. But the Russian-speaking celebrity has taken on a new role. Her Instagram posts about skin care tips have been replaced by patriotic propaganda. The former Eurovision Song Contest host says she is one of around 200 influencers who are using their social media accounts to help the Ukrainian government to get its mes...

When social media star Maxim was shelled out of his home, he didn’t expect to be called a liar by some of his followers. But did the hostility come from real people - or automated accounts? As the battle for Ukraine rages, another conflict is being fought in parallel – an information war. And like the conflict on the ground, this fight also has real consequences for the people whose lives it touch...