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WhatsApp Records Historic Ban of Over 76 Lakh Accounts in India for Harmful Behavior

On Monday, Meta-owned WhatsApp announced that by the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, over 76 lakh accounts were banned in India during February.

According to the company’s monthly compliance report, from February 1–29, 7,628,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned, with 1,424,000 of those accounts being terminated proactively—that is, before any user complained.

With over 500 million users nationwide, the messaging app received a record 16,618 complaint reports in February of this year, of which 22 were “actioned.”

The term “Accounts Actioned” denotes situations when WhatsApp resolves concerns brought forward by the reports; if action is taken, an account may be banned or, in the event of a ban, may be restored.

“We address every complaint we receive, except those that are thought to be duplicates of earlier tickets. According to the firm, an account is considered “actioned” when it is suspended or reinstated following a complaint.

The corporation had blocked “6,728,000 accounts” between January 1 and January 31. Before any user reports, almost 1,358,000 of these accounts were proactively banned.

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The corporation states that “we employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts” in addition to safety features and controls.