WhatsApp banned over 71 lakh accounts in India within a month due to policy violation

Meta-owned WhatsApp has banned over 71 lakh accounts in India in November 2023. According to India’s monthly report under the IT Rules, 2021 (published on January 1, 2024), WhatsApp banned 71,96,000 accounts between November 1 to 30, out of these, the company proactively banned 19,54,000 accounts before anyone reported these accounts.

WhatsApp identifies Indian users via a +91 phone number. In the same month, WhatsApp received 8,841 grievances and the company has taken action on six of these reports. WhatsApp has also received eight reports from Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) and all eight reports have been complied with.

GAC was created by the Govt of India to address concerns raised by the citizens of India on various social media platforms.

The platform takes several measures to tackle abuse on the platform, by offering tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour. WhatsApp detection operates in three different levels — “at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback.” When a user reports an account, a team of analysts go through it and evaluate if it requires strict action such as banning the account permanently.

WhatsApp has been introducing several security features to enhance privacy and user safety throughout the year, the company currently has features like end-to-end encryption, mute unknown number, and chat lock, which makes WhatsApp a private and secure cross-platform messaging service.