WhatsApp Banned 1.66 Million Accounts in India in April 2022

WhatsApp has launched its eleventh consumer security month-to-month report, which exhibits that the corporate has actioned some accounts in India by its prevention and detection strategies for violating the legal guidelines of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service. In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, WhatsApp has taken motion in response to grievances acquired from customers in India by way of the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp and has banned over 1.66 million accounts within the month of April 2022. The firm launched April’s security report on June 1, 2022.

WhatsApp’s India Monthly report beneath the Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, exhibits the knowledge for the interval from April 1 to April 30, 2022. The report exhibits {that a} complete of 844 grievances have been despatched by customers out of which 90 have been associated to accounting assist, 670 have been associated to banning appeals, 34 have been associated to product assist, 13 have been associated to security, and the remainder of the 37 have been associated to different assist. Out of those, solely 123 requests have been actioned, all of which belonged to the ban attraction class, aside from the 1 belonging to the opposite assist grievance. It is vital to notice that taking motion denotes both banning an account or a beforehand banned account being restored because of the consumer grievance. Users can ship grievances to WhatsApp, on grievance_officer_wa@assist.whatsapp.com or ship a letter to the India Grievance Officer by way of publish. WhatsApp additionally has its personal instruments and assets deployed to cease abuse and different dangerous exercise.

Commenting on the newest report, a WhatsApp spokesperson stated, “we are an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services in preventing and combating abuse. In addition to our safety features and controls, we employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts. We enable users to block contacts and to report problematic content and contacts to us from inside the app. We pay close attention to user feedback and engage with specialists in stemming misinformation, promoting cybersecurity, and preserving election integrity.”

On the opposite hand, WhatsApp talked about that it banned over 1.85 million accounts in March, in its earlier month-to-month report launched on May 1.