New Delhi: Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has banned more than 8.4 million accounts in India within a single month. In its latest Transparency Report, Meta revealed that 8.45 million WhatsApp accounts in India were disabled between 1 August and 31 August.
Around 1.66 million accounts were immediately removed due to severe violations, while the remaining accounts faced bans following investigations. Notably, over 1.6 million accounts were proactively identified and blocked before receiving any user complaints.
WhatsApp has cited multiple reasons for this large-scale enforcement action:
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Violation of Terms of Service: Accounts engaged in bulk messaging, spam, fraudulent activities, and the spread of misleading or harmful content were targeted.
Illegal Activities: Users involved in activities contravening Indian laws faced immediate bans, aligning with WhatsApp’s legal compliance measures.
User Complaints: WhatsApp has acted upon numerous user reports concerning harassment, abuse, and inappropriate behaviour. Such complaints have played a pivotal role in identifying harmful accounts.
These accounts were banned to combat abuse in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021. WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India. According to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, all digital and social media platforms working in India and having a cluster of more than 50 lakh customers must release a monthly compliance. The compliance report should provide the details of customer complaints received by the firms and the actions taken by the team against such reports.
As per existing regulations, WhatsApp receives grievances from users via emails sent to grievance_officer_wa@support.whatsapp.com and via mail sent to the India Grievance Officer via post.
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