Over 2 million Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp

WhatsApp is back in the news and this time it is for reasons other than it rolling out yet another new feature. This time it is because WhatsApp has banned some 2.2 mn Indian accounts.

WhatsApp has reported to the government that it had received as many as 560 user generated grievance reports. (Bloomberg)

WhatsApp is back in the news again and this time it is for reasons other than it rolling out yet another new feature. It is the world's biggest app, but it does not hesitate when it comes to wielding the axe on its own subscribers, even if it means cutting through as many as 2.2 million of them. Yes, WhatsApp has banned over 2 million accounts of its subscribers in the month of September, its latest monthly report shows. All those WhatsApp accounts that were banned had broken the rules and had to pay the price. WhatsApp released its latest compliance report today.

WhatsApp cited the safety and security of its users as a reason to wield the axe on its subscribers who had crossed the line. Its spokesperson said, “WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state of the art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform".

WhatsApp has reported to the government that it had received as many as 560 user generated grievance reports across account support, ban appeal, other support and product support and safety categories in September. The breakup of the reports it received is as follows: account support (121), ban appeal (309), other support and product support (49 each) and safety (32).

The exact number of Indian accounts WhatsApp banned are 2,209,000, which are identified via a '91' phone number prefix for the country.

WhatsApp also said that “This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp as well as WhatsApp's own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform."

This is not the first time that WhatsApp has banned over 2 million accounts, it had banned some 2 million Indian accounts in August too.

These reports are being generated by WhatsApp and other social media and Internet organisations after the the new IT rules came into effect in May. These require them to publish compliance reports every month.