WhatsApp banned over 17 lakh Indian accounts in November, says new data

WhatsApp has stated that it has banned over 17.59 lakh accounts in the month of November and most of them were detected by the company's abuse prevention platform.

WhatsApp banned 17,59,000 accounts registered with an Indian mobile number in the month of November. In its latest compliance report published in January, the Meta-owned chat app said it made the decision to ban accounts using the abuse detection approach, which includes feedback from other users and their appeals via the Report feature in the app.

The compliance reports, released at the beginning of each month, are mandated by the Rule4(1)(d) of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules implemented in 2021. WhatsApp, in these reports, highlights two things: grievances received from Indian users through different modes of sending grievances, such as email and snail mail, and the accounts that were "actioned" through WhatsApp’s “prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service.”