For hundreds of millions of people outside Matamoros, WhatsApp is much more than a messaging platform: it is their main avenue for generating income and seeking government and emergency services where there is at least limited, free internet connection and where mobile phone services have yet to arrive or remains prohibitively expensive.īut when Facebook’s servers crashed on 4 October, it became clear that those bright spots hid grave pitfalls. The lengthy queues of people waiting to charge their phones snaked out of every restaurant and convenience store, testament to the indispensable role of social media in a refugee camp. There, WhatsApp became a portal for people trapped in the camp to access lifesaving medical care and legal aid.

I spent two months in Matamoros, Mexico, organising Project Lifeline’s telemedicine and remote legal assistance project for Central American asylum-seekers stranded in a sprawling border encampment by the migrant protection protocols. In 2019, amid heated debates in the west concerning the proliferation of disinformation and mental health issues stemming from social media, I witnessed a more hopeful side of Facebook’s promise to connect the world.

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