Originally from Guatemala, Maria showed us pictures of letters she had received from a gang threatening to kill her and her daughters if she didn’t pay them. Maria (not her real name), an asylum seeker receiving relief aid at a shelter we partner in Juarez, told us she uses the app to store and upload documents supporting her asylum case. WhatsApp is used by asylum seekers when making their cases.

In addition, WhatsApp is used to share information about safe places to sleep, update border crossing statuses, and find friends and family members separated en route. Migrants use the app to receive money during their journeys through South and Central America and Mexico. Haitians abroad count on WhatsApp for survival. WhatsApp is used to facilitate and confirm money transfers to Haitians on the island, where more than 60% of people live below the poverty line and where remittances make up over 23% of Haiti’s GDP.

They use it to keep track of loved ones’ whereabouts when they travel to the Dominican Republic to buy essential goods that are more expensive in Haiti. For example, Haitians use WhatsApp to alert one another about gang violence in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince.

WhatsApp functions much like a public utility because it allows people to protect themselves through information sharing. Four out of five Lebanese adults use WhatsApp for daily communication, making it the most widely used platform in the country. According to the Global Web Index’s 2020 Social Media User Trends, 90% of 16 to 64 year-olds in seven countries, including Kenya, Malaysia, Colombia, Argentine, and Brazil, are monthly WhatsApp users, with WhatsApp installed on 99% of all smartphones in Brazil. WhatsApp is widely used instead of text messaging and phone calls, especially in places where telecommunications is expensive. The wealthiest among us couldn’t break up the monotony of our work or school day with idle scrolling through photos or feeds, but the situation was dire for people in more vulnerable communities. No one expected Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp to go dark for an unprecedented six hours.

Whatsapp outage reason