{"product_id":"whatsapp-in-the-world-disinformation-encryption-and-extreme-speech-hardcover","title":"Whatsapp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSahana Udupa\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor), \u003cb\u003eHerman Wasserman\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA global analysis of the vastly popular instant messaging service\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKnown by the popular nickname \"ZapZap\" in Brazil and synonymous with the Internet across Africa and South Asia, WhatsApp has emerged as a major means of communication for millions of people around the world. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp offers a closed, encrypted communication architecture that ostensibly limits the reach and exposure of shared content. \u003cbr\u003eWhile recent scholarship has drawn attention to the risks it poses to democratic systems and marginalized communities, \u003ci\u003eWhatsApp\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003ein the World\u003c\/i\u003e is the first study to offer a systematic global view of an encrypted instant messaging service. Rather than taking the technical feature of \"encryption\" at face value, the volume proposes the conceptual framework of \"lived encryptions\" to highlight the different, often contradictory, formations around encrypted messaging, as evidenced in the way the promised confidentiality of encrypted messaging is upturned completely when surveilling states seize the phones from suspected dissenters to download the data, or how seemingly closed group communication is channelized to \"broadcast\" top-down political messages. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhatsApp in the World\u003c\/i\u003e features field-based and multidisciplinary research, including contributions from practitioners at leading fact-checking institutions on how encrypted instant messaging services play a critical role in shaping extreme speech and disinformation ecosystems in different regions of the world. From election manipulations in South Africa and Nigeria to Russian diaspora activism in Europe to WhatsApp use as an everyday infrastructure in Brazilian favelas and among nationalists in India, this volume demonstrates how many core features of WhatsApp--from disappearing messages and quick forwards to group chats and calls--allow for the amplification of disinformation and extreme speech. Highlighting complex political dynamics on the ground, it also introduces the significant methodological challenges of studying encrypted messaging services, providing critical pathways to address issues around ethical and technical issues of data protection, privacy, and confidentiality.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSahana Udupa (Editor) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSahana Udupa\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of Media Anthropology at the University of Munich (LMU) and author of \u003ci\u003eMaking News in Global India: Media, Publics, Politics \u003c\/i\u003eand co-author of\u003ci\u003e Digital Unsettling: Decoloniality and Dispossession in the Age of Social Media.\u003c\/i\u003e She is also coeditor of \u003ci\u003eDigital Hate: The Global Conjuncture of Extreme Speech \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Media as Politics in South Asia\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eHerman Wasserman (Editor) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eHerman Wasserman\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of Journalism at Stellenbosch University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eTabloid Journalism in South Africa\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eMedia, Geopolitics, and Power: A View from the Global South\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eThe Ethics of Engagement: Media, Conflict and Democracy in Africa\u003c\/i\u003e. He is also coeditor of \u003ci\u003eDisinformation in the Global South.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 384\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 08, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52488392245555,"sku":"9781479833269","price":167.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/pVP1RL4YMD9781479833269.webp?v=1759874132","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/whatsapp-in-the-world-disinformation-encryption-and-extreme-speech-hardcover","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}