WhatsApp has revealed that it banned nearly 7 crore accounts in India between January and November 2023, as stated in its monthly reports.
Amid the Lok Sabha elections, the Meta-owned company is rigorously investigating all reports of fraud and illicit telemarketing on WhatsApp to adhere to the Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). The company has been releasing monthly India reports.
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As per WhatsApp, the “reports are published in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). These reports contain information on actions taken by WhatsApp in response to: Grievances received from users in India via the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp; Accounts actioned in India through our prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service.”
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Between March 1 and 31, WhatsApp banned 7,954,000 accounts.
As per a report released by WhatsApp in January 2024, the company banned 69,307,254 accounts till November 31 last year.
Last year in January, WhatsApp banned 2,918,000 accounts, 4,597,400 accounts were banned in February, 4,715,906 in March, 7,452,500 in April, 6,508,000 in May, 6,611,700 in June, 7,228,000 in July, 7,420,748 in August, 71,11,000 in September, 7,548,000 in October and 7,196,000 in November.
With the upcoming release of another report featuring December data, it is anticipated that this figure will surpass the 7-crore mark. Additionally, WhatsApp highlighted that over 2 crore (24,378,890) of these accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users were received.
“The data shared highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp…using the aforementioned abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users,” said WhatsApp.
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According to the monthly reports, WhatsApp received over 79,000 grievances from users between January and November last year, encompassing account support, ban appeals, other support, product support, and safety concerns. In response, the platform took action against 2,398 accounts.
“Accounts Actioned’ denotes reports where we took remedial action based on the report. Taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of the complaint,” WhatsApp said in a report.
“Reports may have been reviewed but not included as ‘Actioned’ for several reasons, including – The user requires assistance from us to access their account; The user requires assistance to use one of our features. The user is writing to us to provide feedback regarding our service; The user requests restoration of a banned account and the request is denied; The reported account does not violate the laws of India or our Terms of Service.”
