Brazilians have adopted WhatsApp as a national media and communication infrastructure over the past several years, although it is controlled by its private US-based owner, Facebook. This article explores the diverse, contentious and influential roles the app played in the country during disruptions to its use from 2015 to 2018. Using content analysis, we critically engage with user-generated memes and news media coverage responding to these disruptions. In these cases, Brazilians self-reflexively questioned the app’s role in their everyday lives and country, reassessing what it means to rely on a national infrastructure owned by an unaccountable global media conglomerate.

巴西人在过去几年中将 WhatsApp 用作国家媒体和通信基础设施，尽管它由其在美国的私人所有者 Facebook 控制。本文探讨了该应用在 2015 年至 2018 年使用中断期间在该国发挥的多样化、有争议和有影响力的作用。通过内容分析，我们批判性地参与了用户生成的模因和新闻媒体报道以应对这些中断。在这些情况下，巴西人不自觉地质疑该应用程序在他们日常生活和国家中的作用，重新评估依赖一家不负责任的全球媒体集团拥有的国家基础设施意味着什么。