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WhatsApp has streamlined business communication for human smuggling

Aug 1, 2023
Social media has transformed global communication, benefiting those who are in the business of guiding and transporting migrants seeking better lives.
Social media and direct messaging apps, like WhatsApp, have become a major asset in the lucrative business of human smuggling.
AFP via Getty Images

WhatsApp outage highlights the scale of its worldwide use

Oct 5, 2021
The Facebook property has become a business lifeline in countries where other communication alternatives are expensive or inaccessible.
The interruption of Facebook's WhatsApp platform on Monday hindered communication and business across the globe.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

WhatsApp's privacy features make it a hotbed for COVID-19 hoaxes

Mar 23, 2020
The app is impossible to search for conspiracy theories in order to stop their spread.
Pro-Trump extremists are joining smaller, private messaging groups on encrypted messaging apps. It might be a good thing, because then the virality of disinformation is contained, but it can also be a bad thing if law enforcement can't see their next move.
Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images

WhatsApp's first foray into e-commerce

Nov 8, 2019
Facebook is hoping a new shopping feature might lead to a new revenue stream.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Social media, elections and fake news: India edition

Apr 5, 2019
As national elections approach, voters are being targeted with fake news on WhatsApp.
An Indian newspaper vendor reads a newspaper with a full back page advertisement from WhatsApp intended to counter fake information in New Delhi on July 10, 2018.
Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

Three ways to optimize tech for an emergency

Sep 8, 2017
During a disaster, digital records, messaging, even social media are all pretty handy.
A woman looks at a smart phone as it charges while staying with other flood victims at a shelter in the George R. Brown Convention Center during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey on August 28, 2017 in Houston, Texas
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Line debuts about 30 percent higher than initial price

Jul 14, 2016
The largest IPO of the year has just launched.
This photo taken on July 12, 2016 shows a customer entering the Line Friends shop in Tokyo's Harajuku district. Japan-based messaging app Line kicks off a dual New York-Tokyo stock listing later on July 14, 2016 after one of the year's biggest initial public offerings. The company, looking to expand on booming popularity among smartphone users in Asia, priced its shares at a top-of-the-range 3,300 yen (32 USD), suggesting strong demand for the sale. 
TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Line messaging app enters an overcrowded market

Jul 13, 2016
Too many apps, so little time.
Line is a Japanese based messenger app trying to break into the public market.
Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images

Encryption spreads as Apple battles the FBI

Mar 14, 2016
Companies are beefing up protections for users to better compete for our business
rotesters demonstrate outside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters building in Washington, DC, February 23, 2016, objecting to the US government attempt to put a backdoor into the Apple iPhone. 
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

The Pope is using Telegram to share messages during Lent

Feb 11, 2016
Pope Francis dropped WhatsApp and opted for a new messaging app this year
Pope Franci on Christmas Day 2015. 
Franco Origlia/Getty Images