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Algeria is a nation in flux - and it has become an information battleground. In February this year, thousands came out onto the streets to protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's decision to run for a fifth term in office. He eventually resigned, but the demonstrators have continued to press for change.Protesters have been using social media to keep up the momentum, but a campaign of disinformation threatens to stop them in their tracks. A flurry of fake news stories has been spreading online, while pro-government trolls have tried to shape the online conversation.Opposition figures have accused the regime of deploying such tactics - but what do we really know about this faceless online army? We delve into a world of online lies and rumours and meet the volunteers helping Algerians distinguish fact from fiction.Presenter: Marco Silva(Photo: An Algerian protester shouts slogans during a demonstration in Algiers on 1 May. Credit: Getty Images)

Some believe red mercury is a mystical elixir with magical healing powers that has survived from the time of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt.Others fear that it is a dangerous nuclear material, which in the wrong hands could bring about the apocalypse.However, red mercury doesn’t actually exist. So why is it being offered for sale on social media?We go in search of the many amazing lives of this mysterious mythical material.Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Sarah Myles Producer: Ed Main(Photo Caption: Illustration of a red splodge / Photo Credit: Getty Images)

How do Chinese social media users navigate government censorship?Months of unrest in Hong Kong have caused concern in mainland China, where news about the pro-democracy protests has been carefully filtered out of social media.It’s common for social media companies in China to remove content that is perceived to be threatening to social stability or the ruling Communist Party.Beijing-based journalist and writer Karoline Kan delves into a world of forbidden words and state-sanctioned influencers.Presenter: Marco Silva(Photo Caption: Illustration of a man pulling the Chinese flag over another person’s mouth / Photo Credit: BBC)

When it became clear Samantha couldn’t give birth to her own children, she and her husband decided to look on social media for pregnant women who wanted to give their babies up for adoption.They got a message from a young woman, who said she was heavily pregnant and wanted them to adopt her child. The couple couldn’t believe their luck. But what followed was more than a month of emotional turmoil.They had fallen prey to a scammer who had promised babies to lots of couples she found on Instagram.We investigate the web of lies and deceit spun by the scammer and explore the emotional toll it took on dozens of hopeful parents. Presenter: Reha Kansara Reporter: Naomi Pallas (Photo Caption: A composite of a family portrait without a child / Photo Credit: BBC)

War-torn countries are having their cultural heritage destroyed with antiquities being looted and sold to generate money. In some cases, the plunder may constitute a war crime.Instability in countries like Syria means some people are taking desperate measures to survive, but some looters have connections to criminal gangs, the Syrian government and terrorist organisations.How has this trade moved online and what is being done to prevent the destruction of cultural heritage? We examine the scale of the looting, how traffickers use the features of platforms like Facebook to facilitate their illegal businesses, and how the western art world could help tackle the issue.Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Sarah Myles(Photo Caption: An April 2019 picture of the adorned arc at the 5th century basilica in Syria's Qalb Lozeh village in the north-western province of Idlib / Photo Credit: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images)

Have you ever wondered what would happen to humanity if we all stopped having babies? The extinction of the human race may be a scary thought to most of us, but not for the “anti-natalists”. They’re a thriving online community based on Facebook and Reddit that firmly believes human life only brings suffering and should therefore come to an end. While some entertain the idea on a purely philosophical level, others say reducing the number of people on Earth is an imperative to combat climate change. So what exactly motivates the anti-natalists? And how seriously should we take some of their rather controversial views and arguments? We have been following their conversations online and spoken to a number of anti-natalists who want a worldwide birth stop now. Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Jonathan Griffin(Photo: Red ban sign over baby's picture. Credit: Getty Images)

YouTube has been criticised for failing to take responsibility for videos posted on the platform. So can it be trusted to control potentially harmful content?The video-sharing site is just 14, but there's no doubt it has become a giant of global communication. According to the company's own figures, it has more than a billion users around the globe, watching more than a billion hours of videos every day. At the same time as it has grown phenomenally popular, however, YouTube has also been accused of spreading conspiracy theories and radicalising people into violent extremism. It has also been blamed for allowing hate speech, while failing to protect users from harmful videos.And so it's only fair to ask: can YouTube really be trusted? In a rare interview with the BBC, YouTube UK managing director Ben McOwen Wilson gives us a glimpse into the company’s thinking about the many challenges and controversies it has faced in recent months.Presenter: Marco Silva Reporter: Chris Fox(Photo Caption: a laptop showing Yo

What does the QAnon conspiracy theory tell us about American politics today? It’s a sprawling set of allegations which has a number of branches and offshoots –but if one thing unites its believers, it’s that they all support President Trump. We meet Dylan Wheeler, an influencer with more than 370,000 followers on Twitter, as he speaks at a gathering of Trump supporters. Although the people in the crowd aren’t all conspiracy theorists, some of them aren’t exactly opposed to such ideas. We hear from experts who tell us that conspiracy theories are a consistent and significant feature of American politics, and they come from the left as much as the right. What, if anything, is different about QAnon?Presenter: Mike Wendling(Photo Caption:: A QAnon supporter holds up a sign outside a rally for President Donald Trump / Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Many people who believe the Earth is not round first heard the idea on YouTube. While it’s hard to accurately say how many flat Earthers there are worldwide, it is undeniable that their community has grown in recent years. Flat Earth meet-ups and conventions have popped up in a number of countries, while online searches for the topic have reached unprecedented levels. YouTube hosts thousands of flat Earth videos, some with millions of views. And when you ask flat Earth conspiracy theorists how they got into the movement, they almost always say their introduction came via the world’s most popular video-sharing site. It was on YouTube that many were persuaded to reject centuries of solid science and where they found like-minded people to share their views with. YouTube says it's taking action to address the proliferation of misinformation and conspiracy theories on their platform. The Google-owned company says it’s trying to limit the spread of flat Earth videos (albeit only in the United States so far) and is

Growing up, Dina – not her real name – would browse social media and imagine a life far from the one she was living. She felt shackled by the rules imposed on her by her parents, religion and the culture of the United Arab Emirates. So one day she escaped, using social media to navigate through networks of people and ex-Muslim communities, to get to the West. Several recent high-profile cases of Emirati women leaving the country have been in the news recently. But Dina’s story is more ordinary and indications are it is becoming more common. We explore why Dina fled the UAE, how she did it and what life is like for her now. Presenter: Reha Kansara Reporter: Sophia Smith-Galer (Photo Caption: Dina, who fled her family in the United Arab Emirates / Photo Credit: BBC)

After a Sudanese protester was killed, there was a wave of sympathy on social media – but scammers took advantage. In early June, 26-year-old activist Mohamed Mattar was shot and killed in Khartoum. He was one of 100 protesters who died in a government crackdown on a sit-in. Blue was his favourite colour, and at the time of his death, the avatar on his social media pages displayed a deep shade similar to the colour of the ocean. Some of Mohamed’s friends and family changed their avatars to the same colour that he used. Within days, a worldwide movement had started: #BlueForSudan. But along with the authentic outpouring of support came scammers who used the trend to harvest likes, shares and followers. So how did “sympathy scammers” exploit the crisis for their own benefit? We speak to the teenage boy who took them on.Presenters: Jonathan Griffin and Reha Kansara(Photo caption: Some of the fake accounts / Photo credit: Instagram)

It was a moment that defined online activism. When tens of thousands of people came out to Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the end of the rule of Hosni Mubarak in January 2011, they weren’t responding to a political party or a leafleting campaign – but instead to a Facebook page.It was called “We are all Khaled Said” - in honour of a 28-year-old man who was tortured to death by Egyptian police. It was the moment when the world woke up to the true political power of social media.Wael Ghonim was one of the founders of that Facebook page - but the revolution did not go according to plan. The Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi was elected president, and was then overthrown by the army. He recently died while on trial.A wave of terror attacks, a shaky security situation, a faltering economy, and increasing political repression have rocked Egypt.Earlier this year, Trending visited Wael Ghonim in one of his favourite cafes in San Francisco to talk about technology, politics, and revolution. Have the events

Online debate is broken – full of angry shouting and mindless agreement. And that’s even before you get to the trolls, lies, misinformation, and fake news. This week we visit Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, to meet a man with a plan to fix this problem.Six years ago, when he was a curious, guitar-playing student, Kal Turnbull started a subreddit – a section of the website Reddit - called Change My View. He encouraged people to post their opinions and invite other users to politely argue against them.It took off, and now has more than 700,000 subscribers. And now Kal wants to take the idea beyond Reddit, with a new website – ChangeAView.com – which just launched. We stroll around a very damp Inverness to find out more about his new business, ask Kal about some of the criticisms that have been levelled at it, and look at how online debate became so unhealthy.Presenters: Jonathan Griffin and Mike Wendling(Photo Caption: Kal Turnbull on the banks of the River Ness / Photo credit: BBC)

Nina spends three hours a day on Facebook – not sharing selfies or catching up on news, but trying to make the network a nicer place. She’s a German member of a large and growing international movement called #IAmHere. Started in Sweden in 2016, tens of thousands of volunteers in more than a dozen countries organise in closed Facebook groups.They target popular posts, often from mainstream news organisations, which get overrun by extremism, violent threats and hate speech. Their goal is to inject balance into the conversation with facts and more moderate views.There’s some evidence to indicate that their efforts are starting to have an impact. We’ve been in around Europe visiting #IAmHere’s founder, Swedish journalist Mina Dennert, and several members from the German group – fittingly called #IchBinHier. We find out how they operate – and what motivates people like Nina to spend so much time trying to chip away at such an enormous issue.Presenter: Reha Kansara Reporter: Jessica BatemanPhoto: German #IAmHere v

They were meant to be private, and the people posting them considered them “jokes”. But when female students at the University of Warwick found out about hundreds of violent and obscene messages – some of them directly naming themselves and their friends - they were horrified and scared. We heard from the women who were named in the group chat, and who alleged that a later university investigation fell short of their expectations. The messages came from closed social media groups – and it was a social media campaign which led to a public outcry which changed the direction of the case.Presenter: Jonathan Griffin Reporter: Larissa Kennelly Photo caption: Hands holding a mobile phone / Photo credit: BBC

Why are there so many conspiracy videos on YouTube? The company has clamped down on extremist and dangerous content, but conspiracies, outright fakes, and hoaxes are still very easy to find. Sometimes they’re only watched by a few people, but often these videos go viral. The reason why they so often pop up on your screen, says former Google employee Guillaume Chaslot, is YouTube’s algorithm. Chaslot was one of the engineers who helped shape the YouTube recommendation engine, the mechanism that determines which videos the site suggests you watch next. He was sacked in 2013, and since then he has become a critic of the company. He now says that YouTube’s obsession with keeping people watching has turned the platform into an incubator for false, incendiary, and sensationalist content – and this, in turn, is having a very real impact on the world we live in. Presenter: Marco SilvaPhoto caption: YouTube logo on a smartphone Photo credit: Getty Images

Officials in Brussels are worried. With the elections for the European Parliament rapidly approaching, they say Russia is using disinformation and fake news to sow discord and to undermine people's trust in the European Union. Moscow flatly denies such accusations. But EU officials say Russian disinformation could help anti-EU parties and movements. And, if you were to believe the polls, populist and Eurosceptic parties are indeed likely to increase their number of seats.While the EU talks of a threat that can’t be ignored, others argue that European governments are missing the point: it's not foreign threats they should be tackling, but rather issues such as economic uncertainty, worries over immigration and discontent with traditional politics. So, how seriously should we be taking the EU's warnings? Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Marco Silva(Photo caption: Mural depicting a man chipping a star off of the European Union flag, by British graffiti artist Banksy / Photo credit: Getty Images)

It’s a dangerous cosmetic surgical procedure that’s all over social media. About one in every 3,000 women who undergo a Brazilian Butt Lift - or BBL - will die, but the stark statistics haven’t stopped its popularity. In the United States, for instance, the number of BBLs has doubled in just a few years.Fuelling the trend are social media photos and influencers who show off their hourglass shapes – including big breasts, tiny waists, and a big bottom. It’s a particularly prized body type in some cultures and, in modern times, it’s been popularised by superstars like Kim Kardashian. We follow Shami, a 23-year-old who’s considering having a BBL. Before she makes a decision, she speaks to social media influencers, her close friends, and medical professionals who help guide her through her choice. Will she – or won’t she?Presenter: Anisa Subedar Reporter: Lola Mosanya(Photo caption: artist’s impression of a Brazilian Butt Lift/ Photo credit: BBC)

Where did it all go wrong? The liberating promise of the internet and social media has recently been swamped by worries about privacy, misinformation and online radicalisation. Now that doubts about our digital technologies are all over the news, what should we do about it?Author and podcaster Douglas Rushkoff wants a new fight against “anti-human” technologies. He says that many recent technological developments – including the rise of social media – have alienated and isolated us. Rushkoff is not a Luddite – in fact he’s an enthusiastic early adopter and long-time chronicler of the digital world. But in his new book Team Human, and his podcast of the same name, he argues for a critical look at how technology is affecting our brains and our lives. What does he think is the way forward – and are people really listening? Presenter: Mike Wendling Producers: Jonathan Griffin and Ed Main(Photo caption: Douglas Rushkoff/ Photo credit: Iain Marcks)

There’s a new wave of political activism in South Africa. Young activists with social media savvy have shaken up the system and could be a decisive factor in next month’s general election.We’ve been to Johannesburg to meet Sankara. His day job is selling eggs, and he’s a staunch supporter of the African National Congress (ANC) – the political movement that has been in power ever since Nelson Mandela was elected president 25 years ago.But this time around the ANC’s majority is not looking so certain. One relatively new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, are looking to boost their share of the vote with more radical policies over land reform and other issues. Their hard-left rhetoric has found an audience among many young people including students like Thapi.The new wave of youth activism has been given a boost by campus movements against rising tuition fees and against alleged bias in education. And so it’s fitting that we brought Sankara and Thapi to meet on the grounds of Wits University to debate the fut