marianna spring, thank you so much.ote of thanks for bbc news. angela griffiths got in touch with us recently and we were so struck by her story, we asked her to record this video. nearly three years ago, in september 2021, a bbc news bulletin led with the sad death of sarah harding of breast cancer. the girls aloud singer sarah harding has died of breast cancer. in the report, the health correspondent at the time, catherine burns, included the detail that breast pain had been one of sarah�*s symptoms. like any cancer the earlier you pick it up the better. this was something i had been experiencing so i booked an appointment with the doctor straightaway. not even three weeks after that report aired, i was diagnosed with breast cancer myself. i laterfound out i had a genetic condition that meant it was 80% likely that the cancer could return. since then, i have had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and three operations to try and reduce my risks. the last of which was three weeks ago. at the time, somebody complained to bbc new

bbc�*s disinformation and social media correspondent marianna spring has been tracking down the peoplen my undercover voters social media feeds. these are online profiles belonging to 24 fictional people i created based on analysis from the national centre for social research. they're based in eight battleground constituencies. i've been looking at the social media feeds of the characters in bridgend. meet gavin, a right—leaning voter in his 60s, 72—year—old eluned a left—leaning welsh nationalist, and lily 18, whose not into politics. lots of comments on political posts recommended to gavin repeatedly say "vote reform uk". while eluned's feed — full of left—leaning content — has been pushed posts from people suggesting the comments that say "vote reform uk" are fake bots. i haven't seen comments repeated in the same way about other parties. so are they bots or real people? i identified dozens of profiles that could look fake — for example with an anonymous username and picture, no followers or real friends, all reposting the same phrases. one was called gen z bloomer. i was able to me

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bbc�*s disinformation and social media correspondent marianna spring has been tracking down the peoplepeople are accusing of being fake on my undercover voters social media feeds. these are online profiles belonging to 2a fictional people i created based on analysis from the national centre for social research. they're based in eight battleground constituencies. i've been looking at the social media feeds of the characters in bridgend. meet gavin, a right—leaning voter in his 60s, 72—year—old eluned a left—leaning welsh nationalist, and lily 18, whose not into politics. lots of comments on political posts recommended to gavin repeatedly say "vote reform uk". while eluned's feed — full of left—leaning content — has been pushed posts from people suggesting the comments that say "vote reform uk" are fake bots. i haven't seen comments repeated in the same way about other parties. so are they bots or real people? i identified dozens of profiles that could look fake — for example with an anonymous username and picture, no followers or real friends, all reposting the same phrases. one was cal

marianna spring is here with more. yes, reeta.ate online profiles in eight battleground constituencies — including these. i�*ve found that, on the social media feeds of my undercover voter characters under 35, 90% of the political posts — not official party content — come from users who�*ve unexpectedly gone viral. these accidental social media influencers are racking up millions of views. they�*re getting as much traction as the parties�* official communications. i spoke to dozens of these new social stars, like 15—year—old tolu. she�*s not old enough to vote but was shocked when her tiktok about politicians�* rhetoric on immigration blew up overnight. several tell me followers said their posts changed their minds about voting. and some have found themselves targets for threats and abuse. i chatted to 16—year—old will, who shares posts like this, of politicians talking about issues like supporting brexit. he even made a political logo for his account. giving young people a platform can encourage young people to voice their opinio

and the wrangler of the undercover voters, social media and disinformation correspondent marianna spring the wrangler. the undercover voters who are 2a people in eight constituencies based on research from the national center for social research, eight kind of interesting constituencies, three made up voters in each representing interesting voter types. and you have different phones for each one to see what social media they're presented with, because there's no way of us knowing what other people's social media feeds are like. spot on, except private with no friends. yeah. you've got no friends. got no friends. they're fictional people. not real. yes. well, the undercover voters are halfway through the election campaign now. can we can we sum up what they're getting? yeah. so i think there's been it's been really interesting sort of looking at, i guess the social media stuff that they've been pushed falls into two camps. the first is the official stuff. so by official stuff i mean either the paid—for adverts that the parties themselves are buying and then targeting at people or the othe

our disinformation and social media correspondent, marianna spring, has been analysing the official socialvidual candidates. views are more important than and it is impossible to know how many different people have watched clips and from where. but alongside genuine content expressing political opinions that have been ai fakes and hateful comments recommended to younger voters. i've been investigating other issues like posts, including one which had smeared politicians with deep fakes and misleading comments. and there are lots of repeated political comments, that sparked accusations of bots, fake accounts that have lots of accounts coming from genuine people but other profiles are more suspect or breaking the social media site's rules and have been removed by the company is following the investigation is put up a bit like this. all of this content, official or not, has shaped narratives around particular parties and candidates. it is by that reason i've been in touch companies and tiktok, x and meta which owns facebook and instagram said they are ensuring users get reliable information th

here's our disinformation correspondent marianna spring.are they real people or fake accounts? i've seen this on my undercover voters feeds, the undercover voters are 24 fictional people i created based on analysis from the national centre for research and they all have online profiles. the undercover voters are based in eight different battleground constituencies and this week i've been looking at the social media feeds of the characters in bridgend. let me tell you a little about them. so, we have got our first, gavin, a right—leaning voter in his 60s, we have 72—year—old left—leaning welsh nationalist and lily who is 18 and much more into taylor swift a she is into politics. what has been interesting to see is how comments on political posts recommended to gavin have repeated this phrase vote reform where on eluned' feed therapy lots of allegations saying those comments saying vote reform are bots, or not authentic accounts. i have not seen, is repeated like this about other party so i identified dozens of accounts that could look fake o

marianna spring has been analysing the official social media battle between the parties, and also howrgeted with, and recommended. what is actually happening question about the political parties are in full swing on social media. according to data since the start of the election campaign, up untiljune the ilith, labour has spent £i.5 campaign, up untiljune the ilith, labour has spent £1.5 million on adverts on meta's platforms, so that is instagram and facebook. the lib dems have spent £69,000, the green party has spent six £5,000, reform uk, £11,900. the snp, £6,800. a lot of these adverts have appeared on my undercover voters phones. adverts that the voters have seen include ones where labour introduced their candidates and others where the conservatives encourage voters not to hand keir starmer a big majority. what's different this time is that lots of the posts with a big reach of the ones party haven't paid for and that don't look official. it is videos on sites like tiktok you can't pay for ads. the green party have got more than half a million lights on their tiktok. these acco