Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp banned over 71 lakh accounts in India in the month of November 2023. The company banned the accounts in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.
Between November 1-30, WhatsApp banned 71,96,000 accounts. About 19,54,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report.
The company had banned 71 lakh plus accounts in the month of October. In September the company banned 75 lakh accounts. In August 2023, the banned accounts number stood at around 74 lakh.
On what basis WhatsApp bans accounts
"We ban accounts if we believe the account activity violates our Terms of Service, for example if it involves spam, scams or if it puts WhatsApp users’ safety at risk," says the company on its page.
What are 'Actioned accounts'
WhatsApp has over 500 million users in the country. The company claims to have received a record 8,841 complaint reports in November in India, and the records "actioned" were six.
"Accounts Actioned" denotes reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the report and taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result.
"This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp's own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform," according to the company.
"We are an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services in preventing and combating abuse. In addition to our safety features and controls, we employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts," said WhatsApp.
English (US) ·