Global Patterns of Viral Content on WhatsApp

TL;DR

This study analyzes the spread of viral content on WhatsApp across India, Indonesia, and Colombia, revealing cross-cultural similarities in misinformation dissemination and user engagement patterns.

Contribution

It provides one of the first cross-cultural categorizations of viral WhatsApp content, highlighting similarities in misinformation spread across diverse countries.

Findings

Viral content often includes political and religious narratives.

Misinformation recirculates despite fact-checking efforts.

Similar dissemination patterns exist across different cultural contexts.

Abstract

This paper explores the nature and spread of viral WhatsApp content among everyday users in three diverse countries: India, Indonesia, and Colombia. By analyzing hundreds of viral messages collected with participants' consent from private WhatsApp groups, we provide one of the first cross-cultural categorizations of viral content on WhatsApp. Despite the differences in cultural and geographic settings, our findings reveal striking similarities in the types of groups users engage with and the viral content they receive, particularly in the prevalence of misinformation. Our comparative analysis shows that viral content often includes political and religious narratives, with misinformation frequently recirculated despite prior debunking by fact-checking organizations. These parallels suggest that closed messaging platforms like WhatsApp facilitate similar patterns of information dissemination across different cultural contexts. This work contributes to the broader understanding of global digital communication ecosystems and provides a foundation for future research on information flow and moderation strategies in private messaging platforms.