WhatsApp banned greater than 71 lakh accounts in India in November final yr, the corporate revealed in its newest month-to-month report. The messaging platform owned by Facebook guardian Meta mentioned that it banned over 19 lakh accounts in India “proactively”, which suggests the corporate took motion on these accounts earlier than it obtained any consumer studies of coverage violations. WhatsApp additionally acted on a handful of over 8,000 grievances obtained from customers in the identical month, in accordance with the agency’s report.
In its newest month-to-month report revealed in compliance with the Information Technology
(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules (2021) WhatsApp says that it banned 71,96,000 accounts between November 1 and November 30 final yr. These had been accounts that had been registered from a cellphone quantity with the +91 worldwide prefix, in accordance with the messaging platform.
WhatsApp says that it banned 19,54,000 of greater than 71 lakh accounts final November proactively — customers did not must report these accounts for violating the corporate’s insurance policies. While WhatsApp permits customers to report accounts, the platform additionally employs on-platform abuse detection programs that may proactively detect coverage violations.
As per present laws, WhatsApp receives grievances from customers through emails despatched to grievance_officer_wa@help.whatsapp.com and through mail despatched to the India Grievance Officer through submit. The firm says that studies associated to account help, assist with accessing options, service suggestions, denied requests associated to banned accounts, or accounts that didn’t violate the corporate’s phrases and the legal guidelines of India.
In order to adjust to the IT Rules (2021), WhatsApp mentioned it acted on 6 requests — one associated to ban appeals and the others associated to miscellaneous help queries — obtained as grievances by the corporate’s Grievance Officer. In November 2023, the corporate obtained 8,841 grievances and complied with 8 orders obtained from the Grievance Appellate Committee throughout the identical month.
