WhatsApp Banned Over 2 Million Accounts in India in August to Prevent Abuse

WhatsApp banned over 2 million accounts within the month of August to curb abuse and stop dangerous behaviour on the platform. The newest transparency report from WhatsApp, revealed to adjust to the brand new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, reveals that it banned a complete 20,70,000 accounts in a single month. The report additionally reveals {that a} whole of 222 ban appeals had been made by customers and the India Grievance Officer in the course of the talked about timeframe and 41 accounts had been ‘actioned’.

In its third transparency report, WhatsApp confirmed {that a} whole of 420 person queries had been obtained within the month of August. Out of this, 222 had been ban appeals, 105 had been queries relating to account help, and 76 reviews had been obtained by WhatsApp relating to product and different help. There had been 17 reviews obtained by WhatsApp relating to security as properly. As talked about, out of the 222 ban appeals obtained by customers and the India Grievance Officer, solely 41 accounts had been acted upon.

In addition to responding to person complaints, WhatsApp additionally has its personal instruments to forestall dangerous behaviour on the platform. These instruments detect abuse at three phases of an account’s way of life — at registration, throughout messaging, and in response to detrimental suggestions, which it receives within the type of person reviews and blocks.

In July, WhatsApp added that India alone accounts for 25 p.c of all of the accounts banned on this planet. It shared that the worldwide common is about 8 million accounts banned per thirty days, which works to imply that bans in India (most of which had been for bulk messaging or spam) account for roughly a fourth of all of the bans on this planet.

In the interval from June 16 to July 31, WhatsApp banned a complete of three,027,000 accounts. Before that, WhatsApp banned 2,011,000 accounts in India between May 15 and June 15.