Internet studies have predominantly focused on the most recent platforms, leaving out many different ways to use internet that become invisible for mainstream studies. At the same time, the majority of internet studies are centered on urban contexts, leaving out populations and their use of internet in rural territories. WhatsApp has emerged as one of the most widely used apps, particularly in the Global South. However, its integration into rural and Indigenous contexts in Latin America remains relatively unexplored. The Jujuy Puna, situated in NW Argentina and home to Quechua communities, recently gained internet connectivity through state initiatives. As a result, the internet has become part of these communities' daily lives, with WhatsApp, in particular, becoming a vital infrastructure integrated into various aspects of everyday activities, including communication, governance, economy, health, and spirituality. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in two villages, Cusi Cusi and Lagunillas del Farallón, this paper examines the use of WhatsApp in these communities. The objective is to highlight the socio-technical adaptability processes through which the uses of WhatsApp in the Jujuy Puna expand communication practices and ways of being that are specific to the local modes of relating to others and to technology. The ethnographic approach enables us to trace continuities that shape the appropriation of WhatsApp in accordance with regional Andean ways of inhabiting and understanding the world. Our aim is to understand WhatsApp from the perspective of the territory, hoping to encourage more diverse dialogues between Latin American anthropology, communication, and internet studies.

The goal of this paper is to present some of the uses of WhatsApp in Brazilian favelas, treating is as a "mundane technology". The data presented comes from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Complexo, a group os favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

Some people are using this platform (Johns et al 2024) for literally everything, but the interest here is in two specific uses: the spread of disinformation and extreme speech (Udupa 2023); and for entrepreneurial initiatives, as a way to guarantee an income in situations of material precariousness. The choice of these two examples is a way to show how the same technology can be differently appropriated, emphasizing the importance of perspectives focused on usage and not just on the technology itself.

WhatsApp has emerged as a crucial platform for social and political discourse worldwide, yet research on its impact remains limited due to data accessibility challenges. This study investigates viral WhatsApp content among Brazilian immigrants in the United States, a population deeply connected to the platform and historically understudied in Latino studies in the U.S. context. We designed a novel data collection method that securely accesses WhatsApp messages labeled as “forwarded many times” and analyze the predominant themes within immigrant WhatsApp groups.

Findings from 723 donated WhatsApp groups (541 of which were active during data collection) reveal that viral content among Brazilian immigrants primarily centers on religious messages, health-related advice, job and housing opportunities, and humor, often reflecting economic anxieties and political concerns. These interactions occur almost exclusively in Portuguese, reinforcing a strong cultural connection to Brazil while filtering discussions about U.S. politics through a Brazilian perspective.

Our analysis situates these findings within broader debates on immigrant information practices, highlighting how WhatsApp serves not only as an avenue for misinformation or polarization, as frequently discussed in the literature, but also as a mechanism for relationship maintenance and solidarity. These insights contribute to research on diasporic media consumption and offer new perspectives on the everyday information landscapes of immigrant communities.

This study examines the ecosystem of anti-mainstream groups on Telegram, with a particular focus on Finnish actors within the right-wing and anti-systemic frameworks. Drawing on Mouffe’s (2005a) concept of political passion, we investigated how anti-mainstream attitudes manifest on this fringe platform, which facilitates open, uncensored, and anonymous political discourse, involving radicalised and extremist actors. Using Finnish Telegram groups as a case study, we conducted a network analysis to map the landscape, identifying four distinct clusters of actors and analysing the similarities and differences in their information-sharing practices. We then applied thematic analysis to uncover the key characteristics of these clusters, highlighting how information can flow from fringe actors to influence more prominent accounts. Unlike other studies on Telegram, our analysis did not find significant far-right activity. However, it revealed how marginalised voices can swiftly evolve from general critiques to extreme viewpoints, often fuelled by conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda. We demonstrated how anti-mainstream voices within the fringe platform can merge with radicalised content, deliberate disinformation, conspiratorial messages, and harmful information operations. Specifically, we highlight how Mouffe’s (2005) initial concept of political passion can operate in a digital environment in which information flows between suppliers and distributors. The more passionately a supplier engages—both in volume and tone of their posts—the more attention they attract across all the clusters. In this way, passion functions as a form of currency within the attention economy (c.f., Heitmayer, 2025), ensuring that suppliers garner enough attention to effectively convey their message.