Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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From the Radiolab podcast: The story of how Tiktok changed everything you see online.

Over the past five years TikTok has radically changed the online world. But trust us when we say it’s not how you’d expect.

Today we continue our years-long exploration of what you can and can’t post online. We look at how Facebook’s approach to free speech has evolved since Trump’s victory. How TikTok upended everything we see. And what all this means for the future of our political and digital lives.

Special thanks to Kate Klonick

EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Simon Adler
Produced by Simon Adler
Original music from Simon Adler
with mixing help from Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by Anna Pujol-Mazzini

Lateral Cuts:
The Trust Engineers (radiolab.org/podcast/trust-engineers)
Facebook’s Supreme Court (radiolab.org/podcast/facebooks-supreme-court)

Episode Segments:
0:00 -14:29 - Chapter 1
14:29.5 - 29:23 - Chapter 2

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Photo illustration by Mikey Burton
Video by W. Harry Fortuna