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Facebook is buying an instant messaging service called WhatsApp for an eye-popping $19 billion. It's the latest salvo in an arms race by Silicon Valley giants to stockpile mobile technology.

The phone messaging app WhatsApp is beloved by millions but infamous as a platform for hoaxes. We speak with the co-host of the new South Africa-based podcast, "What's Crap with WhatsApp?"

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Cristina Tardáguila of the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network about disinformation targeting Spanish-speaking voters in the United States.

Facebook said late Monday that "the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change" and that there is "no evidence that user data was compromised as a result" of the outage.

To put things in perspective, the global messaging platform WhatsApp that Facebook picked up is worth more than Southwest Airlines. But is the price justified?

WhatsApp makes a text messaging app that works on all major smartphone operating systems. Founded in Silicon Valley less than five years ago, the company has 55 employees.

WhatsApp has been accused of being used to spread rumors — with serious consequences. Now the ubiquitous messaging app is moving to limit how many people users can forward messages to.

In recent months, about two dozen people across India have been beaten to death by mobs driven to violence by what they've read on social media and messaging apps.

Protest organizers, lawyers and rights advocates tell NPR the authorities have adopted surveillance tactics, including allegedly invading chat groups to intimidate and investigate critics.

It will also test new ways for businesses to communicate with users on the app. The privacy policy changes mark the long-expected move by Facebook to begin making money from the free app.