Meta-owned WhatsApp said it banned 37,16,000 accounts in India in November under new IT rules. This shows a 60% increase from October. WhatsApp, which has around 50 crore users in the country, received 946 complaints from India in November and took action in 74 cases.
WhatsApp, owned by Meta, said accounts were also blocked in response to “negative feedback” it received from users via its “report” feature. The number of accounts banned by WhatsApp in November is higher than reported in October. In October, 23.24 accounts were removed.
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 via the +91 telephone number. The latest report covers the period from 1 to 30 November.
WhatsApp has previously said that accounts that violate the company’s policies and guidelines are generally 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 of accounts in May, 16.66 lakh in April and 18 lakh in March. These reports are issued in accordance with India’s Information Technology Rules (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Code of Ethics), 2021.
The report shall 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 corporate terms in India. WhatsApp has a complaint cell in India. Any User can contact the Compliance Officer by email or postal mail.
Meta-owned WhatsApp said more than 95% of bans are due to unauthorized use of automated, mass messaging (spam). The global average number of accounts blocked to prevent abuse on the WhatsApp platform is approximately 8 million accounts per month.
Summary in English: WhatsApp banned more than 37 million Indian accounts in November
