New Delhi, NFAPost: WhatsApp banned 14.26 lakh Indian accounts in February based on complaints received from users through grievances channel and its own mechanism to prevent and detect violations.
Out of the total reports received, 194 pertained to ban appeal while others were in the categories of account support, product support and safety, among others. As many as 335 grievance reports were received and 21 accounts were actioned between February 1 and February 28.
This is the ninth report published by WhatsApp. The report is published in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The ban percentage of the WhatsApp accounts decreased to 22.9% month-on-month in February 2022, as compared to its January 2022 data. Every social media intermediary has to comply with the IT rules 2021 and release a monthly transparency report on all grievances the platforms received and what action did the platform take.
For safety related grievances pertaining to issues that may be about abuse or harmful behaviour on the platform, the messaging platform responds to the user guiding them to report the complaint via in-app reporting. This allows WhatsApp to receive the most recent messages sent to the complainant by the reported user or group, as well as information on the complainant’s recent interactions with the reported user.
Between January 1 and January 31, 2022, WhatsApp blocked over 1.8 million (18 Lakh) accounts in India for violating its guidelines and had received 495 grievance reports in January and took action on 24 of those in the same month.
