Over 29 lakh Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp in May

NEW DELHI: More than 19 lakh Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp, owned by Meta in May based on complaints received from users through its complaints channel and its own mechanism to prevent and detect violations, according to the latest monthly report published by the messaging platform.

New IT rules that came into effect last year compel large digital platforms (with more than 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month that mentions the details of complaints they received and the subsequent action taken.

"As captured in the latest monthly report, WhatsApp banned over 1.9 million accounts in the month of May," a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the user-security report contains details of user complaints received, corresponding actions taken by WhatsApp and its own countermeasures to combat abuse on the platform.

Indian accounts are identified by the +91 number prefix.

According to the report released on Friday, WhatsApp banned 19.10 lakh Indian accounts between May 1 and May 31, 2022, using an "abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users..."

In the month of April, Whatsapp banned more than 16 lakh accounts of Indian users and 18.05 lakh such accounts in March.

"Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state-of-the-art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform," the spokesperson further said.

During the month of May 2022, 528 grievance reports were received, and 24 accounts were "actioned".

Of the total reports received, 303 were related to 'ban appeals', while the rest were in categories such as account support, product support and security.

"We respond to all grievances received except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a previous ticket.

An account is 'actioned' when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint," the report said.

The government is working to finalize new social media rules that will provide users with a grievance appeal mechanism against arbitrary content moderation, inaction or removal decisions by big tech companies.

Last month, the IT ministry circulated draft rules that propose a government panel to hear user appeals against inaction on complaints or content-related decisions taken by complaint officials on social media platforms.

At present, "there is no appellate mechanism provided by intermediaries nor is there any credible self-regulatory mechanism in place", the ministry had said.

With PTI inputs