WhatsApp banned 3 million Indian accounts in 46 days, here's why
New IT Rules 2021: In a major development, the Facebook-owned platform WhatsApp has announced that it has banned over 3 million Indian accounts in the 46-days period from June 16 to July 31.
WhatsApp got 137 reports for account support, of which one was actioned while 316 were requests to ban accounts, the messaging giant said in its second compliance report under the new IT Rules 2021.
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"Indian accounts actioned through our prevention and detection methods, for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp`s Terms of Service and user-reports or grievances received, through 2 channels e-mail grievance_officer_wa@support.whatsapp.com regarding violations of WhatsApp`s terms of service, or questions about accounts on WhatsApp, published in the help center or, mails received by the India Grievance Officer via post," the company said in a statement.
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Meanwhile, all grievances received from users in India are evaluated and responded to.
More than 95 percent of such bans in India are because of unauthorized use of automated or bulk messaging (`Spam`).
These numbers have increased since 2019 as the company's 'systems' have increased in sophistication, the firm said.
In its first compliance report, WhatsApp had said it banned 2 million Indian accounts between May 15 and June 15.
In July, Google said that it removed over 1.5 lakh pieces of content on the basis of complaints received in May and June. Over 98 percent of these were related to copyright.
-PTC News
