WhatsApp banned 22 lakh Indian accounts in June

WhatsApp banned 22 lakh Indian accounts on receiving complaints from users via its grievance mechanism in June this year. The action was taken in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021. In the month of May, WhatsApp further banned around 19 lakh bad accounts in the country. The messaging platform received 632 grievance reports in June in India, and the accounts "actioned" were 64. In May, WhatsApp received 528 grievance reports and the accounts "actioned" were 24. The messaging platform lists the accounts against which action was taken based on complaints by users through different channels. WhatsApp identifies an Indian account the one which has a phone number with the prefix 91, the country code.

“WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state-of-the-art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform,” a spokesperson for the company stated.  WhatsApp said the safety related grievances are related to the issues that may be about abuse or harmful behaviour on the platform. The messaging app said it guides the user to lodge a complaint via in-app reporting. Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.