Facebook’s ‘Digital Colonialism’ Made Monday’s Outage A Crisis For The World
- Date: 06-Oct-2021
- Source: Huffpost
- Sector:Economy
- Country:Middle East
Facebook’s ‘Digital Colonialism’ Made Monday’s Outage A Crisis For The World
The Facebook outage that struck Monday morning and lasted throughout the day was ultimately a minor inconvenience for most Americans. But in countries like Brazil, it caused a destabilizing and disorienting seven hours ― not because Facebook.com was gone, but because WhatsApp, the messaging service the company also owns, suddenly went offline along with it.
Still largely an afterthought in the United States, WhatsApp has grown into one of the world’s most vital communications services. More than 2 billion people ― 1 in 4 people on the planet ― use it. Brazil and India alone are home to nearly one-quarter of them.
WhatsApp’s text messaging and internet-based video and audio chat platforms are especially popular in the Global South, where WhatsApp is a cheap way to avoid the often-exorbitant costs of SMS messaging and cellular data. Nearly half of Brazilians say WhatsApp is their most-used app, and more than 90% of the country’s internet users are WhatsAppers — as is also the case in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Argentina, Malaysia and Colombia. Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook also owns, are the second and third most popular apps in Brazil, surveys have shown.
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