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The Querdenken (in English, “lateral thinking”) sprung up last summer – it’s Germany’s anti-vaccine, Covid-denying, anti-lockdown movement, and it’s created a new crop of social media figures. The baseless conspiracy theories they spread have got more extreme over time – and one man in particular has used parents’ worries about the impact of lockdown on their children as a vehicle for false narrat...

Recent surveys indicate that there might be rising scepticism about vaccines in South Africa. But even before the coronavirus pandemic started, the Rainbow Nation was battling a tide of anti-vaccine misinformation online. And one study found that although there is a relatively small group of South African anti-vaccine activists, they are being bolstered by a wave of material coming from abroad. We...

France is one of the most vaccine sceptical countries in the world. A recent poll suggests just 40% of French people intend to take a Covid-19 vaccine, but what's fuelling the doubt? We meet the superstar doctor whose anti-authoritarian zeal has inspired an army of devotees, and the conspiracy obsessed shaman with a huge following on social media. Plus, the activists staging a fightback. “Marie” r...

Scientists say only a vaccine will really get us out of the Covid-19 pandemic. So why has the anti-vaccine movement grown stronger than ever over the last year? In the first episode of this new series, BBC Trending and a team of disinformation reporters will investigate how hardcore anti-vaccine activists have used social media to spread their message far and wide, capitalising on fear and mistrus...

From the global pandemic to the US election, the extraordinary events of 2020 have both fuelled, and been shaped by, the online spread of falsehoods, propaganda and bizarre conspiracy theories. Trending’s Mike Wendling and Marianna Spring, the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter, look back at some of the most viral rumours, how they debunked them, and discover what happened next. Producer: Jo...

It sounds like a dream proposition. A company with a big online following messages you out of the blue, asking you to represent them as a “brand ambassador”. They promise you a boost in Instagram followers, and a discount on their products. And they even promise to donate large sums to charity. But take away the rosy filter, and the reality does not look quite so good. New followers aren’t guarant...

A Facebook group named Stop the Steal sprung up in the hours after the US presidential election. Within hours it had gained hundreds of thousands of followers. Members alleged the election had been “rigged”, despite a lack of evidence. But this claim came from the very top. Months before, President Trump was planting seeds of doubt over the vote – mentioning “voter fraud” and similar phrases more...

The fight over democracy in Hong Kong continues. In the week that pro-democracy lawmakers resigned en masse in protest at the sacking of four of their colleagues, we take a look at the secretive struggles happening online. Trade union leader Carol Ng was shocked to find her phone number and photo on a mysterious website – HK Leaks – which lists names and personal details of some 1,800 activists. W...

Wasil is well known for his funny, flirtatious satirical videos. But he also lives in Indian-administered Kashmir, which is arguably one of the least-connected places on earth. The internet is often cut off or slowed down to a trickle. It’s one of a number of measures the Indian government has taken to restrict information in the province. The government says the measures are necessary to clamp do...

Luon Sovath is a softly spoken Buddhist monk who has long been a thorn in the side of the Cambodian government. And now, he’s been targeted by a state-sponsored disinformation campaign. Earlier this year, a series of mysterious videos appeared on Facebook, accusing him of having affairs with four women from the same family. Soon after he was defrocked and charged with raping another woman, one who...

What would you do if your mum became a conspiracy theory influencer? Kate Shemirani is one of Twitter’s most popular anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti-5G activists. She calls coronavirus a “plandemic” and a “scandemic”, makes the false claim that 5G radio waves cause the symptoms of the disease and even says, contrary to all the evidence, that the virus that causes Covid-19 doesn’t exist. She’s built...

The 2016 US election was beset by so-called “fake news” – but what’s happening this time around? Four years ago, fictitious and scandalous news articles emanating from Russian backed troll farms went viral. Some even claim it may have changed the course of the election. Now a new disinformation battle is raging, but this time the game has changed. Instead of creating content overseas, a number of...

Millions of Americans are tuning into an alternative US election campaign. This one isn’t full of sobering news about the pandemic, the Supreme Court and the American economy – instead it’s filled with chatter about elite cabals, rumours and allegations of the most vile crimes. The rabbit hole election is a subterranean campaign taking place online. And there's one conspiracy theory in particular...

The people in charge wanted state-run news agency Notimex to become the “BBC of Mexico”. And after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018, he appointed people who took on that mission. But now the agency has been rocked by allegations that it targeted online abuse at former employees and critical independent journalists. An investigation by three organisations alleges that peopl...

If you're on Instagram, you'll have seen influencers promoting all sorts of products - from gadgets to clothes or food. But can you really trust their recommendations? A BBC investigation found a number of top influencers pushing products that are fake and poor quality. There’s no evidence to suggest these social media stars knew they were openly promoting questionable brands and companies. And ye...

It’s bursting into the mainstream – a bizarre conspiracy theory that casts US President Donald Trump as its hero. QAnon claims that the president is secretly fighting a cabal of high-placed paedophiles in Hollywood and the so-called “deep state”. But why has it had an apparent surge in popularity during the global pandemic? Since it first emerged in an anonymous post on an online message board in...

They’re going viral for all the right reasons. Health care workers, scientists and experts have been spreading sound facts and solid advice about coronavirus. It’s a push back against all the misinformation, speculation and conspiracy theories that have been swirling around about the pandemic. In this programme we’ll meet four Covid-19 information heroes – from India, the US, and the UK. Each come...

We’ve all been there – that awkward situation that happens over the dinner table or at a party, when someone starts talking about conspiracy theories. With the coronavirus pandemic has come a huge wave of novel online misinformation – including some outlandish ideas and panicky people who are buying into them. So what do you do when confronted with someone who starts spouting obvious falsehoods ab...

In April, dozens of mobile phone towers were set on fire across Britain and demonstrators took to the streets to protest the rollout of 5G. They had the bizarre and entirely false idea that phone towers were somehow causing coronavirus. Fake news and conspiracy theories were given a huge boost by the Covid-19 pandemic, and many of the whispers coalesced around politicians, scientists, and former M...

They seem to be selling a deadly chemical, and have no qualms about offering it to people who may be at risk of suicide. But is their business what it seems - or just an elaborate scam? A Trending investigation has uncovered dozens of pages claiming to sell a highly toxic substance that, in many countries, cannot be bought without a licence. While the substance has some industrial uses, the suppos...

It was a brutal killing which captured the attention of the US and the world. But the death of George Floyd wouldn’t have caused such an outcry if it hadn’t been captured on camera. The person who shot that famous video was 17-year-old Minneapolis resident Darnella Frazier. Her footage, along with other angles captured by other witnesses on that day in late May, galvanised a social media wave and...

It’s full of garish colours and blocky animals. Club Penguin was a huge smash for Disney upon its release 15 years ago. And an unofficial version became an unlikely comeback hit during the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of new players. But things have gone downhill quickly. The unofficial version is outside of the entertainment giant’s control, and a BBC investigation found that moderation is...

A beautiful shot in the wild can get thousands of likes – but some influencers are going too far. We speak to a nature lover who’s had enough. He says that disrespect of nature has risen alongside the popularity of social media. So he’s fighting fire with fire, with an Instagram account called Public Lands Hate You. His more than 70,000 followers and fans – and a host of similar accounts – call ou...

What’s the human cost of viral misinformation? In an exclusive report, we track the worldwide effects of bad information about coronavirus. Misleading info has led to deaths in the US, alcohol poisonings in Iran, drug overdoses in Nigeria and Vietnam, religious violence in India and arsons by people convinced by conspiracy theories. It’s a sobering tally of the human effects of so-called “fake new...

On Facebook and Reddit, they’ve collected hundreds of thousands of members with their criticisms of feminism and campaigning on a range of gender issues. We’ve visited the International Conference on Men’s Issues in Chicago to meet the internet personalities driving the men’s rights movement. They say they’re looking out for men and boys. But their critics claim this conference is just a “gatherin...