Meta-owned messaging service WhatsApp on Monday released its 'User Safety Report' and announced it banned more than 4.7 million bad accounts in March. It should be noted that the company banned more than 4.5 million accounts in February, 2.9 million accounts in January, 3.6 million accounts in December and 3.7 million accounts in November last year.
The world's most popular messaging service publishes these reports each month in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). These reports contain information on actions taken by WhatsApp in response to grievances received from users in the country via the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp and accounts actioned through its prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service in India.
The company further added that it complied with all three orders received from the newly-constituted Grievance Appellate Committee, between March 1 and March 31, 2023. It, however, did not give further details.
"As captured in the latest Monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 4.7 million accounts in the month of March," according to a WhatsApp spokesperson.
An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number.
According to the latest report, as many as 4,720 grievance reports were received, and 585 accounts were "actioned" during March.
Of the total reports received, 4316 pertained to 'ban appeal' while others were in the categories of account support, product support and safety, among others. According to the IT rules, it is mandatory for large digital platforms (those with more than 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.
Earlier, before tech billionaire Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company usually published twice-yearly reports on its Transparency Center website, which would detail the number of accounts it suspended and the number of government requests it received for data. However, the company recently published a blog post where it mentioned India topped the list of countries requesting for removal of content. The other countries top requesting countries included South Korea, Japan and Turkey.