Meta-owned WhatsApp said it banned 26 lakh accounts in India in September under new IT rules. WhatsApp, which has around 50 crore users in the country, received 666 complaints from India in September and took action in 23 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 September was higher than the number reported in August. In August, WhatsApp blocked more than 23 lakh accounts in India.
Under the revised IT rules, major 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 +91 phone number. The latest report covers the period from September 1 to 30.
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 removed in July and 22.1 lakh in June for spreading fake news and hate posts 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 issued in accordance with India’s Information Technology (Intermediary 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 through email or snail mail.
Meta-owned WhatsApp has stated that more than 95 percent of bans are due to unauthorized use of automated and bulk messaging (spam). The global average number of accounts banned to prevent abuse on the WhatsApp platform is around 8 million accounts per month.