Instant messaging platform WhatsApp on Wednesday said it had banned 37.16k accounts in India in November, about 60% more than the number of accounts it banned in the previous month.
forbidden WhatsApp accounts in India including 9.9k accounts that were actively blocked before being flagged by users.
In October, WhatsApp banned 23.24 million accounts in the country, including 8.11 million accounts that were actively banned.
“From November 1, 2022 to November 30, 2022, 3,716,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 990,000 of these accounts were actively banned before there were any reports from users. One Indian account identified by phone number +91,” WhatsApp speak in the India Monthly Report for November published under the Information Technology Code 2021.
Tougher IT rules, which went into effect last year, are mandatory digital platform (with over 50,000 users) publishes monthly compliance reports detailing complaints received and actions taken.
Big social media companies have been criticized in the past for hate speech, misinformation and fake news circulating on their platforms. Concerns have been flagged in a number of quarters time and again over digital platforms acting haphazardly in pulling down content and users ‘destroying the platform’.
The government last week published rules establishing a complaint mechanism against arbitrary content moderation, inaction or takedown decisions by major tech companies.
WhatsApp received a higher number of appeals from users in November for account bans than in October.
It received 946 complaints in November from users, including one that banned 830 accounts. It only acted against 73 accounts.
WhatsApp says it will respond to all complaints received except where it is deemed a duplicate of a previous request.
An account is ‘acted’ when it’s banned or a previously banned account reinstated as a result of a complaint, the report said.
In addition to responding to and handling user complaints through the complaints channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior on the platform, the report said.
