Top Comment
by BBC
Latest episode
How porn sites soft-launched the attention economy
How porn sites soft-launched the attention economy
About this podcast
The story behind your social media feed, from BBC correspondent Marianna Spring and investigative journalist Matt Shea.
Top Comment investigates what's blowing up online. From global events that go viral across social media, to bizarre moments that spill into real life, Marianna and Matt unpack the trends, theories and digital chaos shaping our world.
You can also hear Marianna's previous series for the BBC in this feed, including Marianna in Conspiracyland, Why Do You Hate Me?, Disaster Trolls, Death by Conspiracy? and War on Truth.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 104 episodes
- How porn sites soft-launched the attention economy · 38 minWith the advent of OnlyFans, pornographic content has become a fixture of mainstream social media. But the influence of the adult entertainment industry on internet culture…
- Are platforms promoting death on demand? · 35 minWhy are we seeing more death on our feeds? From footage of an Ecuadorean priest being killed by a crucifix to the man who was attacked by a tiger on camera, snuff content appears…
- AI influencers are invading our feeds · 35 minFrom shadowboxing Parisians to chihuahuas fronting rap videos, the acceleration in generative AI capability is now impossible to miss on our feeds. On this episode, Matt and…
- Frances Haugen: exposing Facebook five years on · 44 minAs The Social Reckoning hits cinemas, the whistleblower who inspired the movie joins Top Comment to discuss what's changed since she leaked tens of thousands of internal Facebook…
- How the 'Cornell 7' rape case became a call to action · 39 minAn alleged case of gang rape at a Cornell frat house has caused widespread outrage after new details emerged in a civil suit brought by the purported victim. Evidence including a…
- Has Hunter Biden fumbled the bag? · 34 minAfter years spent sheltering from the public gaze, Hunter Biden re-entered the mainstream consciousness last summer via a surprise YouTube appearance alongside prominent…
- Why deepfake wizards went underground · 31 minSexualised deepfakes by commission - until administrators shut down a popular request forum earlier this year, self-styled 'wizards' were offering this service at scale via the…
- How Charlie Kirk achieved internet immortality · 30 minA year since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, social media users are marking what has controversially become known as the 'Kirkiversary'. Far from the…
- Angel Vic and the truth about hustle culture · 35 minIt's the latest example of an influencer's digital persona disintegrating before our eyes. For several years, Angel Victoria Murdock has been portraying a life of self-made…
- Lindsay Clancy and the age of TikTok trials · 38 minA Massachusetts jury are deliberating in the shocking case of Lindsay Clancy, a mother who admits to killing her three young children amid suffering, her lawyers argue, extreme…
- Everybody wants to be Ellie Ellis · 39 minHow did a 16-year-old girl with no prior online presence manage to gain more than 700k TikTok followers within a week of her first post? On this episode, we discuss the theories…
- Exposed: the faceless accounts inflaming the Ceuta crisis · 30 minAfter roughly 78,000 migrants made the journey from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in a matter of hours at the end of July, reporters across the world were quick to…
- A grievance syndicate is defrauding young men · 34 minThe manosphere is just the tip of the iceberg - that's the premise of a new report, shared exclusively with Top Comment, about the so-called male grievance industry. Its author…
- The vigilante streamers destroying reputations on Kick · 36 minFrom chasing pickpockets to unmasking predators, vigilantism has become one of the biggest trends on social media. On this episode Matt and Marianna discuss how the age of…
- Andrew Tate is blaming the Matrix again · 32 minManosphere kingpin Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in the US over the weekend after British authorities announced dozens of new charges against the pair…
- Erling Haaland, crypto billionaires, and the foxes incident · 39 minYou may already think crypto is overexposed online, but is what we're experiencing just the tip of the iceberg? On this episode, Matt talks about his new BBC documentary in which…
- Solo-maxxing and the femosphere (live at Crossed Wires) · 50 minMarianna is joined by guest host Rachel Connolly to journey into the lives of femcels, tradwives, and so-called loneliness influencers. As the merits of social isolation are…
- Gabriel Shemirani on medical misinfo and rejecting Conspiracyland · 32 minOne year on from the BBC's investigation into the death of 23-year-old Paloma Shemirani - and two years since it happened - this episode of Top Comment explores what the case…
- Restore Britain, Merlin the duck, and FIFA's content farm · 35 minAfter achieving 7% of the vote in last week's Makerfield by-election, the social-led strategy of emerging right-wing party Restore Britain has come under the spotlight. Various…
- Agartha explained, and hot girls revolt on BookTok · 31 minThe BookTok community has erupted after creator AllieRoseCo announced she had trademarked merchandise featuring the phrase 'Hot Girls Read'. User backlash was instantaneous, with…
