Whistleblowers, dolphin memes, and a million dollar toilet
Top Comment
BBC
4.0 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How has an algorithmic arms race created an environment where controversial and incendiary content is routinely amplified on our feeds? On this episode, Marianna discusses her latest investigation, which provides a paper trail showing how social media giants ignored internal warnings about the design of their platforms. She's heard from whistleblowers about problematic moderation practices, how companies deal with so-called borderline content, and the troubling reality that algorithms may now be beyond our control.
Also this week, we look at the website 'your ai slop bores me' which launched two weeks ago and is already claiming over a million unique visitors. It may look like a chatbot, but this is actually humans cosplaying as generative AI and completing mundane tasks for one another. Matt explains how this relates to what's becoming known as the 'meat layer', where humans are used to prop up the shortcomings of artificial intelligence.
Plus, how did a satirical post about a man being kidnapped by dolphins inspire a whole ecosystem of memes? And can you really make a million dollars online by selling ad space on your toilet seat?
Top Comment is hosted by Marianna Spring and Matt Shea. The series producer is Laurie Kalus. The social producer is Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The editor is Justine Lang. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
If you want to get in touch about something that's popped up on your feed, our email address is topcomment@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | An early start here. It's time to kick off. |
| 0:10.0 | Your day. Morning! |
| 0:11.9 | What a line-up. |
| 0:13.3 | Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show. |
| 0:16.1 | The crowd is loving this. |
| 0:18.3 | Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind. |
| 0:20.2 | From morning chaos to match day commentary. |
| 0:23.6 | And everything in between. |
| 0:25.0 | BBC sounds packed with personality. |
| 0:28.8 | So before we talk about what we're going to talk about, I want to dive head first into this toilet. |
| 0:34.7 | And by that I mean there's a basically this million dollar toilet that's appeared on social media. |
| 0:40.1 | This man called Nick Greenewalt is selling projector mapped ad space on his toilet. |
| 0:46.3 | And it's like a really clean toilet, isn't it? |
| 0:48.3 | It's like the sparkly toilet. |
| 0:49.3 | It's funny that you've picked up on that specific detail of the story, but yes, it is a very clean |
| 0:53.5 | toilet. Because that's why it looks quite good because it's got like the projected brands on the toilet and it's like, whoa, this is a shiny toilet. My takeaway wasn't like how clean is a toilet. My takeaway is, wow, a guy's selling advertising space on his toilet and making loads of money doing it. Selling ad space on my toilet until I'm a millionaire part one. Here's how it works. |
| 1:12.4 | I have three tiers of pricing. He's trying to make a million dollars. Yeah. And I think this |
| 1:18.1 | represents the entire internet where you kind of do something that's so ridiculous and create such |
| 1:25.1 | shock value is so gross and then use that to sell stuff. Like when you think |
| 1:28.9 | about clavicular, HS Tiki-Toki, Andrew Tate, who are all- Like the Manusphere Influencers. Yeah, all these |
| 1:34.9 | Manifluencers, they're all kind of shocking influencers who are used by crypto companies, |
... |
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