WhatsApp banned over 3 million accounts in India from June 16-July 31

By Team Newsable | First Published Sep 1, 2021, 10:23 AM IST

During the period, the messaging platform banned 3,027,000 WhatsApp accounts as per the compliance report filed by it on Tuesday, according to PTI.

Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp banned over 3 million Indian accounts in the 46 days from June 16 to July 31, 2021, according to the platform’s latest compliance report under the new Information Technology Rules, 2021.

During the period, the messaging platform banned 3,027,000 WhatsApp accounts as per the compliance report filed by it on Tuesday, according to PTI.

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“WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state of the art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

In the "interest of preventing online abuse and keeping users safe" on the platform, WhatsApp in its report said it took action against Indian accounts through its "prevention and detection method for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp's Terms of Service". WhatsApp said overall, over 95% of such bans in India were due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging (spam).

Also read: Google removes 95,680 objectionable content in July in India, reveals report

According to the study, the messaging giant received 594 user reports spanning across account support (137), ban appeal (316), other support (45), product support (64) and safety (32) of which 74 ban appeal requests were handled.

According to the report, 74 accounts were "actioned" during this time. It said that “Account Actioned” implies that some remedial measures were taken on the basis of the report. Taking action is either banning an account or restoring a previously banned account based on the complaint.

The company identifies an Indian account via a +91 phone number. As per the company, more than 95% of bans in India are due to the unauthorized use of automated or bulk messaging, resulting in spam. Globally, the monthly average of accounts banned on the platform is about 8 million, The Hindu reported.

The new IT rules - which came into effect on May 26 require large digital platforms, with more than 5 million users, to publish compliance reports every month mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.

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