Beta-owned WhatsApp said it banned 37,16,000 accounts in India in November under new IT rules. This shows an increase of 60 per cent over October. WhatsApp, which has around 50 crore users in the country, received 946 complaints from India in November and took action in 74 cases.
Meta-owned WhatsApp said the accounts were also blocked in response to ‘negative feedback’ received from users through the ‘report’ feature. The number of accounts banned by WhatsApp in November is more than what was reported in October. In October, 23.24 accounts were deleted.
Under the revised IT rules, large digital and social media platforms with more than 50 lakh users will have to publish monthly reports. The report also states that Indian accounts are identified through a +91 phone number. The latest report covers the period between 1 and 30 November.
WhatsApp has previously stated that accounts that violate the company’s policies and guidelines are usually banned. WhatsApp accounts will be banned if a user has acted to spread false information, forward an unverified message to multiple contacts, etc.
23 lakh accounts were deleted in July and 22.1 lakh in June for spreading fake news and hate messages across the country and the world. WhatsApp banned 19 lakh accounts in May, 16.66 lakh in April and 18 lakh in March. These reports are published in accordance with the Information Technology of India (Media Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Ethics) Rules, 2021.
The report needs to show the number of complaints received from users in India through WhatsApp’s compliance mechanisms, and accounts blocked by mechanisms to prevent violations of laws or company terms in India. WhatsApp has a complaint cell in India. Any User may contact the Compliance Officer by email or snail mail.
Beta-owned WhatsApp has reported that more than 95 percent of bans are due to unauthorized use of automated and bulk messages (spam). The global average number of accounts banned to prevent abuse on the WhatsApp platform is around 8 million accounts per month.
English Summary: WhatsApp banned over 37 lakh Indian accounts in November
