WhatsApp, a Meta-owned instant messaging platform reportedly banned over 71 lakh bad accounts in India in November 2023. The decision was made in compliance with the latest IT Rules 2021. The company said, between November 1-30, WhatsApp banned 71,96,000 accounts. About 19,54,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, as stated in the monthly compliance report.
One of the widely used instant messaging platforms has over 500 million users in India and has received another record of 8,841 complaints. The complaints were reported in November in India, and the records 'actioned' were six.
'Accounts Actioned' denotes the reports which took remedial action, based on the report and taking action - denoting either the banning of the account or a previously banned account being restored as a result.
The company said, "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.”To empower a vast number of Indian social media users, the government of the country has introduced the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC). This committee has been created to address the concerns and grievances which are raised by the users related to the content and various other issues on social media platforms.
The newly-formed panel, a move to strengthen the country's digital laws to tame the Big Tech companies, will look into appeals by users against decisions of social media platforms.
WhatsApp said, "We are an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services in preventing and combating abuse. In addition to our safety features and controls, we employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts.”