2.2 million Indian WhatsApp accounts banned in September: Report

According to WhatsApp's recent compliance report released on Monday, more than 2.2 million Indian accounts were banned by the app, and 560 grievance reports were received by it in September. A total of 2,209,000 Indian accounts on the platform were banned in September.

"WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. 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," a WhatsApp spokesperson said. The compliance report for September 1-30, 2021, was published in accordance with IT Rules 2021.

"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," the spokesperson said.

Earlier, the company had stated that more than 95 per cent of the ban was due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging (spam). WhatsApp bans around 8 million accounts per month on a global average to prevent abuse on its platform.

As per the latest report, the Facebook-owned company received 560 user reports spanning across account support (121), ban appeal (309), other support and product support (49 each) and safety (32). 51 accounts were actioned based on the reports received. WhatsApp explained that "Accounts Actioned" denotes remedial action was taken based on the reports. Taking action implies either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of a complaint.