Social media and the riots: Musk, misinformation and moral responsibility.

Elon Musk has repeatedly attacked Sir Keir Starmer on his platform ‘X’ this week over the handling of riots in England and Northern Ireland.

The disorder follows the fatal stabbing last week of three young girls in Southport and has been fuelled by misinformation online, the far-right and anti-immigration sentiment.

This week Amol looks at whether social media companies should be forced to go further in stopping the spread of misinformation online.

He is joined by David Wilding, a former director of Twitter UK who resigned when Musk took over, and former Facebook trust & safety manager Professor Victoria Baines, now at Gresham College.

And University Challenge’s Roger Tilling returns to the podcast to chat about the new series – and his moment of the week.

If you have a question you’d like to Amol and Nick to answer, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us [email protected]

Episodes of The Today Podcast land first on BBC Sounds. Get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

You can listen to the latest episode of The Today Podcast any time on your smart speaker by saying “Smart Speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play The Today Podcast.”

The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producer is Hatty Nash, the researcher is Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Jack Graysmark and digital production from Charlie Henry.