While the “fake news” scandals surrounding the 2016 electoral upsets in the UK and US were more focused upon Facebook – which owns WhatsApp – subsequent electoral victories for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Narendra Modi in India were aided by incendiary WhatsApp messaging, exploiting the vast reach of the app in these countries. This was not the first time that WhatsApp has been embroiled in controversy. Meanwhile, the app was also enabling the spread of fake audio clips, such as a widely shared recording in which someone who claimed to work for the NHS reported that ambulances would no longer be sent to assist people with breathing difficulties. Some feared that the very same community groups created during March were now accelerating the spread of the 5G conspiracy theory. WhatsApp, along with Facebook and YouTube, was a key channel through which the conspiracy theory proliferated. Across the UK, people began setting fire to 5G masts, with 20 arson attacks over the Easter weekend alone. A conspiracy theory about the rollout of 5G, which originated long before Covid-19 had appeared, now claimed that mobile phone masts were responsible for the disease.
Yet by mid-April, the role that WhatsApp was playing in the pandemic looked somewhat darker. Families and friends used the app to stay close, sharing their fears and concerns in real time. Mutual aid groups sprung up to help the vulnerable. At first, many of the new uses were heartening.
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