WhatsApp banned over 2.2 million Indian accounts in September

The Facebook-owned messaging application said 2,209,000 Indian accounts on the platform were banned in September. It states that an Indian account is identified through a phone number with the prefix ’91’.

“WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse between end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Over the past few years, we have continuously invested in Artificial Intelligence and other cutting edge technology, data scientists and experts and processes to keep our users safe on our platform,” said a WhatsApp spokesperson.

As per IT Rules 2021, WhatsApp has published its fourth monthly report for the 30-day period of 1-30 September.

“This user-safety report includes details of user complaints and related actions taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier, the Facebook-owned company had said that more than 95 percent of the ban was due to unauthorized use of automated or bulk messaging (spam). The global average number of accounts used by WhatsApp to prevent abuse on its platform is around 8 million accounts per month.

In its compliance report for September, WhatsApp said it received 560 user reports spanning account support (121), ban appeals (309), other support and product support (49 each) and security (32).

Action was taken on 51 accounts based on the reports received during this period.

WhatsApp explained that “Accounts Action” refers to the remedial action taken based on the report.

Taking action refers to either banning an account or reinstating an account already banned as a result of the complaint.

Also, the report may have been reviewed but not included as an ‘action’ for a number of reasons, including requiring assistance for the user to access their account or to use certain features, accounts restricted by the user reinstatement is requested and the request is denied, or if the reported account does not violate the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service.

Nearly 2 million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp while the messaging platform received 420 complaint reports in August.

The new IT rules – which went into effect in May – require large digital platforms (with more than 5 million users) to publish compliance reports every month, detailing complaints received and actions taken.

Earlier, WhatsApp had emphasized that being an end-to-end encrypted platform, it has no visibility into the content of any message.

In addition to behavioral cues from accounts, it relies on available unencrypted information, including user reports, profile photos, group photos and descriptions, as well as advanced AI tools and resources to detect and prevent abuse on its platform. have taken.