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Jan 2025
49m 22s

Musk, Zuckerberg and Free Speech

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

The billionaire owner of X has made misleading claims about Keir Starmer’s handling of the grooming gangs scandal and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has announced the end of independent fact-checking on Meta’s platforms in the US. The move comes as Zuckerberg and other tech executives seek to improve relations with US President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office later this month.

In this episode Amol and Nick talk to Vivian Schiller, former head of news at Twitter, about what is happening to free speech online. They also reflect on how Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have reacted to Elon Musk’s intervention.

To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories and insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme make sure you hit subscribe on BBC Sounds. That way you’ll get an alert every time we release a new episode, and you won’t miss our extra bonus episodes either.

GET IN TOUCH: * Send us a message or a voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 * Email today@bbc.co.uk

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today 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.

This episode was made by Lewis Vickers with Nadia Gyane and Grace Reeve. Digital production was by Nadia Gyane. The technical producer was Jonny Baker. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

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