Meta-owned WhatsApp bans over 75 lakh bad accounts in India in October

Meta-owned WhatsApp banned a record over 75 lakh bad accounts in India in the month of October, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.

In October, Meta-owned WhatsApp banned nearly 75 lakh bad accounts in India, in accordance with the new IT Rules 2021. Between October 1-31, the company banned "7,548,000 accounts".

According to WhatsApp's monthly compliance report, about 1,919,000 of these accounts were proactively banned prior to any user reports.

The country's most popular messaging app, which has over 500 million users, got another record 9,063 complaint reports in October, with 12 "actioned" records.

"Accounts Actioned" denotes reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the report and taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result.

"This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp's own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform," according to the company.

In a bid to empower millions of Indian social media users, the Centre recently launched the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) that looks into their concerns regarding content and other issues.
The newly-formed panel, a move to strengthen the country's digital laws to tame the Big Tech companies, will look into appeals by users against decisions of social media platforms.

"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," said WhatsApp.