WhatsApp bans over 23.8 lakh accounts in India in July- Check details

Every month, WhatsApp releases a report informing about the accounts it bans if it finds them violating rules. According to the information provided by the online messaging application under the India Monthly Report under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, between July 1 and July 31, 2022, 23,87,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. While over 14.16 lakh accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users. It can be known that in the month of June 2022, 22,10,000 accounts were banned by WhatsApp in India on the basis of complaints received via its grievance redressal channel and through its own mechanism to detect violations.

"Between 1 July 2022 and 31 July 2022, 2,387,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,416,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users," WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report. The messaging platform further informed that the data shared highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp between July 1, 2022 and July 31, 2022 using the abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users via the app's “Report” feature.

Explaining how WhatsApp tackles abuse, the messaging platform informed, in addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, the app also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior on the platform.

"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 augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time," WhatsApp said in the report.

It can be known that as many as 574 grievance reports were received, and 27 accounts were "actioned" during the month of July 2022. Also, of the total reports received, 392 pertained to 'ban appeal' while others were in the categories of account support, product support and safety, among others.

"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.

It can be known that WhatsApp bans or suspends accounts if it believes that the account activity violates the Terms of Service of the platform, for example, if it involves spam, scams or if it puts WhatsApp users’ safety at risk. However, there are instances when some accounts are flagged from their automated systems accidentally.

So, if you think that your WhatsApp account has been banned or suspended without you violating the app's terms then you can appeal to revoke the ban. Here is how: