The importance of this application in fighting the coronavirus is immense as WhatsApp is the most popular platform in Africa. In this blog post, I will discuss how this platform has been used to tackle this pandemic, how governments have responded to this platform and its role in regional integration in the African continent, and whether it can be an effective tool for the continent to prepare for the next health crisis.
In Zimbabwe, WhatsApp alone accounts for almost half of all internet traffic and this is a trend repeated in many African countries, with some countries having even higher usage, such as Kenya, which is estimated to be 74%. However, while it has proven to be a useful tool for the distribution of information and has been helpful in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) such as alerting people to wash their hands and practice good hygiene, it has unfortunately been a source of fake news as information is easily “shared” by its users, often without fact-checking, which has caused panic amongst some sections of the population. WhatsApp Messenger has become the most popular messenger application on the African continent for a variety of reasons, most prominently as a news source.
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