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The video-sharing app TikTok has taken the teenage world by storm. But where there are kids, there are also predators. We found dozens of adults using TikTok to post sexual comments on videos uploaded by teenagers and children. TikTok, which has 500 million users worldwide, says it is working hard to protect its users from inappropriate approaches. But a BBC Trending investigation exposed some worrying shortcomings in the way it deals with the problem. Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Marco Silva (Photo: TikTok logo. Credit: TikTok)

Roger McNamee was a Facebook fan and an advisor to Mark Zuckerberg. Now he says he’s sad about the way the company is being run and the impact that it’s having on the world. Zuckerberg first sought out his advice, McNamee says, in 2006, shortly after Yahoo was making a $1bn bid to buy the social media company. McNamee, a veteran Silicon Valley investor, says he saw Facebook’s potential and urged the young entrepreneur to stay independent. But a decade later, he saw hyper-partisan posts poisoning politics online, and during the late stages of the US presidential election in 2016 he turned from a Facebook booster to a Facebook critic. Roger McNamee recently stopped into a studio to talk to us about his new book, Zucked, and he told us that Facebook, Google and other tech companies have serious flaws which require drastic and swift action. Presenter: Mike Wendling Producer: Edward Main (Photo: Roger McNamee. Credit: Rick Smolan)

Where does the extremist culture that inspired the Christchurch killer come from? A graphic live-streamed video and a rambling document included clues as to how the Christchurch shooter was radicalised. He used the message board 8chan to announce his attacks, which killed 50 people in the New Zealand city. And throughout his online postings are clues to how connected he was with the online culture of 8chan and a related website, 4chan. We break down the online networks used by far-right extremists to disseminate their messages under layers of irony and double meaning. And ask questions about the big social media companies, who’ve been criticised for not taking quicker action – both against the live-streamed video of the attacks and more generally against white nationalist propaganda. Is there anything that can be done online to stop similar attacks in the future? Presenters: Anisa Subedar and Mike Wendling Guests: Robert Evans, investigative journalist, Bellingcat Hussein Kesvani, UK editor, MEL magazi

Since the election of Donald Trump, there’s been a disturbing wave of street violence across America. The epicentre is Portland, Oregon, a place better known for its chilled out hipster lifestyle – but which has been the scene of dozens of far-right marches and rallies. Those events often result in arrests and violence. BBC Trending went there to meet two activists who have been on opposite sides of the fighting. Anti-fascist activist Luis Enrique Marquez and Rob Cantrall, member of the far-right Proud Boys group, have agreed to meet for a discussion. But will they have any common ground to bridge the political divide? Presenter: Mike Wendling Producers: Linda Sills & Natalia Zuo Editor: Jeremy Skeet (Photo Caption: A far-right protester in Portland / Photo Credit: Getty Images)

There is a disturbing new wave of political street violence in America. Groups on the far right and the far left have clashed in New York, Berkeley, California, and Charlottesville, Virginia. But one liberal enclave is the main battleground: Portland, Oregon - a progressive city in the Pacific north-west. BBC Trending has visited Portland to meet two activists who have traded insults and threats online, as well as confronting each other in the streets. What drives anti-fascist Luis Enrique Marquez? And why has marijuana farmer Rob Cantrall joined the Proud Boys, which one anti-extremism organisation has dubbed a hate group? Presenter: Mike Wendling Producers: Linda Sills and Natalia Zuo (Photo: Anti-fascist activists line up in front of police in Portland. Credit: Getty Images)

After she got a death threat, Ginger Gorman dove headfirst into the world of trolls. It all started when she wrote a light feature about a gay couple who had adopted a child. Years later, the couple were arrested on child sexual abuse charges, and although she had no knowledge of their crimes, internet trolls swarmed to attack her – even sending her and her family death threats. Where some would run away and hide, Ginger became fascinated with the world of online trolling and spent five years researching a dark and dangerous online world for a new book. Not only did she gain insight into the psyche of a troll but one notorious troll actually became her friend. But what are the implications and consequences of trolls on the people they target? And should social media companies do more about the people who post online threats on their platforms? Presenter: Anisa Subedar (Photo Caption: Ginger Gorman / Photo Credit: Ginger Gorman)

Recently, printers around the world started spewing out pages without any direction from their owners. Then a mysterious video showed up on smart TVs. Both hacks were designed to promote PewDiePie, the most popular vlogger on YouTube, in his battle to maintain subscriber supremacy against popular Indian channel T-Series. The hackers say they did it to expose the flaws and dangers in some connected devices, but they also got the attention of the YouTube star – as well as the authorities, and trolls who sent them threats. The BBC’s cybersecurity correspondent Joe Tidy tracked down the hackers and joins us in the studio to tell us what he found out. After the pranks make worldwide news, the pair decided to disappear from the internet for fear of reprisals. Do they now regret hacking? Presenter: Anisa Subedar Reporter: Joe Tidy (Photo Caption: YouTuber PewDiePie / Photo Credit: Getty Images)

There is no independent media in Eritrea, a country that ranks near the very bottom of press freedom indexes. But one man is trying to change his country’s repressive system. “J” is the editor of Eritrean Press, a Facebook page which is a mix of political reporting, satire, sport, and light features. It’s an almost unique development aimed at Eritrean readers both inside the country – where only around 1% of the population is able to access the internet – and the wider diaspora around the world. In his first-ever interview, the editor of Eritrean Press talks about what it’s like to run a news outlet from outside the country, and how a peace agreement caused his page’s stance to shift - from broad support of government foreign policy to a sharply critical line on President Isaias Afwerki’s regime. Reporters: Reha Kansara and Mike Wendling Producers: Reha Kansara and Ed Main (Photo Caption: The Eritrean Press logo with a silhouette of man talking into a microphone / Photo Credit: BBC/Eritrean Press)

After 14-year-old Keira Gross was murdered in Berlin, the far right pounced. They spread rumours and misinformation online, blaming the crime on a Muslim immigrant from Chechnya who they dubbed “The Beast of the Caucasus”. One key activist, Lutz Bachmann of the anti-Islam group Pegida, even identified a boy who he said was the murderer, and posted his details with a link to his Facebook profile. However, there was a problem: the rumours were wrong. It emerged that Keira was not murdered by a Muslim immigrant, but rather by a churchgoing German classmate who was obsessed with Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. We hear from Keira’s mother about the impact the rumours have had on her life, and find out how extremists twist reports of crime to serve their political goals. Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Ant Adeane (Photo: Keira Gross. Credit: Karin Gross)

Carrie Goldberg’s life changed when an ex-boyfriend threatened to post naked pictures and videos of her online. She was already practicing as a lawyer, but quit her job to start her own firm and give her clients - as she puts it - “the lawyer I needed when I was going through hell.” When she began in 2014, there were few laws against what is now known as “revenge porn” – the non-consensual sharing of explicit photos online. Now many countries and US states have passed anti-revenge porn laws. Movements like #MeToo have also focused attention on sexual consent and harassment. Carrie Goldberg tells BBC Trending how she has won legal victories for her clients. And she explains why social media and dating apps are both part of the solution and part of the problem. Presenter: Mike Wendling Producer: Anisa Subedar (Photo: Carrie Goldberg in her New York office / Credit: BBC Copyright)

Caroline Calloway built a huge audience on Instagram by posting fairy tale pictures of life as a university student in England, mixing romance and adventure with a dash of personal revelation and grit. But she recently found herself on the receiving end of a wave of abuse after she cancelled a tour of “creativity workshops”. It’s prompted a discussion about influencers – social media stars who have a lot of cultural clout and can often make a lot of money. But what happens when they let down their fans? Reporter: Anisa Subedar Presenter: Mike Wendling (Photo: Caroline Calloway. Credit: Instagram/Caroline Calloway)

In June 2017 more than 70 children arrived at a university campus in Indiana, US. They were there to take part in a nutrition study that examined the effects of diet and sodium reduction on blood pressure and cholesterol in adolescents. But the experiment swiftly came to a halt when a video was posted online of what was going on at the Camp. As a result, the multi-million dollar nutrition study was terminated. We travel to the US to speak to the children who participated in the study, their parents, and a camp manager. Reporter: Camila Ruz Producer: Ant Adeane (Photo: Purdue University Student Dormitory Building. Credit: Getty Images)

At the start of October some users of a music-streaming platform found that their accounts were playing songs against their wishes. Artists like the Bergenulo Five and DJ Bruej were streamed thousands of times, with Spotify users claiming the music was forced onto them. Apart from the listings on the streaming platforms, the musicians had next to no digital footprint on the rest of the internet - no fan pages, no concert listings and no photos of the actual band members. So who was behind the streaming and why? Reporter: Jonathan Griffin Producer: Ant Adeane (Photo: A woman with an unhappy expression wearing headphones whilst placing her hands over her ears. Credit: Getty Images)

We meet investigators looking into social media manipulation and the people behind the Hamilton 68 project, which monitors suspected Russian accounts. Two reports recently prepared for US Senate investigators detailed extensive Russian efforts to influence major social networks. Trending travels to Texas to meet the people behind one of the reports at New Knowledge, a company that was involved in the development of the “Hamilton 68 dashboard” – a running tally of hashtags and other information on accounts linked to Russian propaganda. New Knowledge has been one of a number of companies at the forefront of the investigation into the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency and other disinformation campaigns. But the firm has also been criticised for lack of transparency around Hamilton 68 and for its involvement in a project during the US Senate race in Alabama. How do researchers answer those criticisms – and what are the methods they use to establish the origins of disinformation and social media propagan

Russian pensions, football in Africa, jihadi propaganda – these are among the stories, trends, and conversations that are to shape social media in 2019. To find out more, Marco Silva talks to BBC colleagues who watch social media around the world. What stories and conversations will they be following online in the year ahead? Presenter: Marco Silva Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar Photo caption: a man holds a smartphone with the icons for various social networking apps seen on the screen. Photo credit: Getty Images

A look at BBC Trending’s highlights from the past year of covering social media. From America’s student anti-gun movement to the continuing noise made by #MeToo activists, social media played a huge role in some of the biggest political movements of the year. And of course the World Cup was drenched in tweets and hashtags - plus, we visit the gaming team with an average age of 67. All that and more, in our roundup of the year on social media as seen by BBC Trending. Presenter: Mike Wendling Producer: Reha Kansara Sound Engineers: Rod Farquar and Graham Puddifoot Photo Caption: A hashtag in a speech bubble Photo Credit: Getty Images

YouTube has deleted thousands of videos after a BBC Trending investigation. Seven months after we initially broke the story of essay-writing services advertised by top YouTubers, we found that the problem is bigger than ever, and academic cheating companies like EduBirdie have now moved on to other platforms like Snapchat, Facebook and Google. After alerting the tech giants of our findings, YouTube and Facebook took direct action and removed some of the content promoting essay writing companies. They say they’re taking steps to discourage dishonest behaviour. Using essay-writing services can lead to serious penalties for students – getting them expelled from university or school. And YouTubers who advertise such services risk having their videos taken down. We hear from YouTuber Nick Sturgeon who regrets having advertised a well-known academic cheating company on his channel - and a student who was blackmailed when he paid to have his work written for him. Presenter: Anisa Subedar Reporters: Ed Main and Bra

Instagram’s search function does not always shield people at risk of eating disorders from seeing potentially harmful posts. A Trending investigation has found that although the site has filters in place to make the most obvious eating disorder-related hashtags unsearchable, misspellings allow people to navigate around the restrictions. And health warnings do not always pop up when users type in search terms that could lead them to some very extreme content. We hear from people who have suffered from eating disorders who describe the kinds of things they have seen on Instagram, and tell us of the challenges of using a social network as part of the recovery process. Instagram acknowledges the complexity of the issue and says it is dedicated to keeping harmful content away from vulnerable users. And as a result of our research, the Facebook-owned company has made some adjustments to try to further protect users. Presenter: Anisa Subedar Reporter: Joanne Whalley (Photo: A photo of a pizza being taken on

A shadowy website spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on political adverts on Facebook and other networks. But the people behind “Mainstream Network” have managed to remain entirely anonymous. No-one knows who runs the site and its social media accounts, where their money is coming from, or what their motivation is. We investigate their operation - just as Facebook faces tough questions about their role in preserving the integrity of elections around the world. Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Marco Silva (Photo: A montage of Mainstream Network’s website and the site’s logo. Credit: Mainstream Network/BBC)

We investigate the criminals who threaten to expose you on social media, using password hacking. Imagine you open your email and there’s a message in there from someone that knows some of your personal information – like your laptop password. Not only that, but they’re threatening to reveal your darkest secrets on social media, unless you pay a ransom in anonymous cryptocurrency. That’s been happening to people all over the world - including our reporter Jo Whalley. Jo finds out how cyber criminals have got hold of people’s personal information and about the huge sums of money people have been paying to the scammers. Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Jo Whalley Studio Manager: Neil Churchill Photo Caption: Photo illustration of hackers Photo Credit: Getty Images