Main content

Russia and Ukraine, Hip Hop Fighting, and Anonymous Messages

The standoff between Russia and Ukraine on social media, the violent videos that are going viral, plus a trending anonymous message app.

Conflict on the ground is reflected in social media as ±«Óãtv Trending talks to a young man recruiting Russians to cross the border into Ukraine. The team also looks into Twitter claims that a pro-Russian woman interviewed on YouTube and Ukrainian TV channels is really an actor.

Going viral is the holy grail of online video and violence is one sure way to get attention. The controversial World Star Hip Hop site hosts bloody videos that would usually get scrubbed from YouTube, but some critics wonder whether it perpetuates racial stereotypes. Ravin Sampat reports on a film-maker whose video on the site got a million hits in 24 hours.

Also trending this week is an anonymous phone messaging app called Whisper – and it’s not the only app that keeps the identity of its users secret. It sees to hark back to the early days of the internet, but does anonymity allow people to get away with misbehaviour – and what’s its social purpose?

Mukul Devichand is joined in the studio by ±«Óãtv Russian’s Lina Rozovskaya, Suzanne Whiteman from ±«Óãtv Monitoring, ±«Óãtv Trending’s Ravin Sampat and a very annoying anonymous app.

Producer: Mike Wendling

Available now

18 minutes

Chapters

  • Pro-Russian group recruits via social media

    Vkontakte group Civil Defence of Ukraine advertising for Russians to cross the border

    Duration: 03:35

  • The woman 'popping up' all over Ukraine

    Social media users think interviewees used on TV are an actress and the same woman

    Duration: 02:21

Broadcasts

  • Sat 8 Mar 2014 11:32GMT
  • Sun 9 Mar 2014 04:32GMT
  • Sun 9 Mar 2014 23:32GMT

Podcast