Meta’s instant messaging platform WhatsApp banned over 71 lakh Indian accounts on the platform in April 2024. These actions were taken on the accounts that violated Indian laws. For the unaware, the messaging platform publishes monthly reports in compliance with the IT Rules, 2021 and shares details about the action taken by WhatsApp on complaints and its detection and prevention mechanism.
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The latest report concerned action taken from April 1 to April 30. Users can submit their grievances to the Indian Grievance Officer via e-mail or post. In April, the company received 10,554 grievances on topics ranging from ban appeals, safety, account support, product support and more. Besides actioning user complaints, the company uses “tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour” on the platform.
“The abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which we receive in the form of user reports and blocks,” WhatsApp said. A team of analysts at WhatsApp augment this system and improve its effectiveness.
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The number of banned accounts also includes “action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users via our ‘Report’ feature,” the company added. A total of 7,182,000 Indian accounts were banned in India. Out of these, 1,302,000 were proactively banned before any report from users. An Indian account is identified with a ‘+91’ phone number.
Further, WhatsApp has a “team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments” to prevent and combat online abuse. Plus, the company also uses end-to-end encrypted messaging services.
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“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,” the Meta app added.
