5. A collective immune system

Can people fight back against medical misinformation? In the months after Paloma’s death, her brothers say they want to prevent other deaths, and they believe social media companies should take stronger action against medical misinformation. Meanwhile her Mum, Kate Shemirani, takes to social media to share a different account of her death. She has promoted a range of unproven theories on social media and podcasts about how Paloma was murdered by medical staff. The BBC has not seen evidence to support this. The BBC’s social media investigations correspondent Marianna Spring interrogates whether and how some politicians and social media companies are emboldening anti-medicine conspiracy theorists, and speaks to a former cancer surgeon and patient trying to bust cancer myths online.

Host: Marianna Spring

Producer: Anna Harris

Story Editor: Matt Willis

Sound Designer: Tony Churnside

Editor: Sam Bonham

Commissioning producer: Nathan Jones

Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts

This was a BBC collaboration with Panorama. Watch Cancer Conspiracy Theories on iPlayer now.