In August, WhatsApp banned more than 23.28 lakh Indian accounts

According to a statement released on Saturday by the messaging service, WhatsApp terminated over 23.28 lakh Indian accounts in August, of which over 10 lakh were actively deleted without user complaint.

This is a decrease from the previous month’s level. WhatsApp banned over 23.87 lakh Indian accounts in July.

“Between 1 August, 2022 and 31 August, 2022, 2,328,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,008,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users,” WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report.

A +91 phone number can be used to identify an Indian account.

On the basis of complaints received through its grievance redressal channel and through its own process to detect infractions, WhatsApp blocked over 22 lakh Indian accounts in June. Previously, WhatsApp had blocked 19 lakh such accounts in May, 16 lakh in April, and 18.05 lakh in March.

Large digital platforms (with more than 50 lakh users) are required by the stricter IT regulations, which went into effect last year, to produce compliance reports each month that include information about complaints received and actions taken.

Large social media companies have faced criticism in the past for the fake news, hate speech, and disinformation that circulated on their platforms.

Concerns about digital platforms acting arbitrarily in removing information and “de-platforming” people have often been raised by some sectors.

In order to protect consumers against arbitrary content moderation, inaction, or takedown choices made by major internet corporations, the government is currently developing new social media regulations.

The most recent report states that between August 1 and August 31, 2022, 598 grievance reports and 19 accounts were “actioned.”

Out of the total reports received, 449 related to “ban appeal,” with the remaining reports falling under various categories such as account support, product support, and safety.

“We respond to all grievances received except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a previous ticket. An account is ‘actioned’ when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint,” the report said.

In June, the IT Ministry released a draught set of regulations that calls for a tribunal to hear user appeals against judgments made by social media platform grievance officers about content or against inaction on complaints.

The government has stated that there is now neither a credible self-regulatory mechanism in existence nor an appellate process offered by intermediaries.

Last year, the government announced IT regulations to hold digital intermediaries more liable and responsible for the content that is housed on their platforms.

In its compliance report, WhatsApp said: “We will continue with the transparency to our work and include information about our efforts in future reports.”

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