WhatsApp Bans More than 18 Lakh Accounts in India

Meta-owned WhatsApp announced that it has suspended over 18 lakh of bad accounts in India in March in accordance with the new IT rules 2021. The company said that it also received 597 grievance reports in the same month from the country, and the accounts actioned were 74. WhatsApp has earlier banned over 14 lakh such accounts in the country in February.

A WhatsApp spokesperson has said in a statement, “In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our report for the month of March 2022. This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and corresponding action taken by WhatsApp’s own presentive actions to combat abuse on our platform.”

According to the company, shared data highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp on March 1-31 using a fraud detection approach. This includes means of facilitating negative user feedback through the reporting feature.

The company added, “ Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and another state of the art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform.” According to the new IT Rule 2021, large digital and social media platforms with over 5 million users will need to publish a monthly compliance report.