WhatsApp bans over 8.5 million accounts in India for policy violations

Meta-owned WhatsApp banned more than 85 lakh “bad” accounts in India in the month of September for violating its policies.

Between September 1-September 30, the company banned 8,584,000 accounts and 1,658,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, according to the social media platform’s monthly compliance report under the new IT Rules 2021.

The popular mobile messaging platform, which has more than 600 million users in India, received 8,161 grievances from the country, and the records “actioned” were 97. The account “Actioned” means complaints where WhatsApp took remedial action.

WhatsApp also received two orders from the Grievance Appellate Committee in the country and complied with both, according to its monthly compliance report.

“We will continue with transparency to our work and include information about our efforts in future reports,” said the company. It employs a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers,



and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts.

“We enable users to block contacts and to report problematic content and contacts to us from inside the app. We pay close attention to user feedback and engage with specialists in stemming misinformation, promoting cybersecurity, and preserving election integrity,” said WhatsApp.

The abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which we receive in the form of user reports and blocks.

A team of analysts them augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time.

Between August 1, 2024 and August 31, 2024, 8,458,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned, 1,661,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users.

It also received 10,707 grievances from the country in August, and the records “actioned” were 93.