Meta’s most expensive acquisition ever and one of the most used communication apps in the world: WhatsApp. With over 2 billion users, WhatsApp is embedded in the social, economic, and political infrastructure of countries across the globe. For better and worse. The story of WhatsApp’s incredible power, as told through its largest market: India.

NOTE: There are descriptions of graphic acts of violence in this episode. If you want to skip these descriptions, the section begins at 20:45 and ends at 22:05.

• Hosted by Shirin Ghaffary (@shiringhaffary) and Alex Heath (@alexeheath)
• Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app
• Follow @recode and @verge for more coverage of Meta and Big Tech

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices