Instant messaging platform WhatsApp on Thursday said it banned over 7.4 million Indian accounts in April – around a 60 per cent increase month-on-month – due to possible user harm activities such as online abuse.
The popular messenger app has recently come under scrutiny over increasing spam calls from international numbers. The platform has taken down 7,452,500 Indian accounts out of which 2,469,700 were proactively banned, before any reports from users. In March, the company had taken down around 4.7 million Indian accounts.
An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number. WhatsApp provided these details under its monthly report for April 2023, as required by Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
WhatsApp’s abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s life: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback the company receives in the form of user reports and blocks. In addition to responding to user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour on the platform.
According to a WhatsApp spokesperson’s statement earlier this month, the platform has ramped up its AI & ML systems to bring down incidents like spam calls “significantly.” The recent enforcement was supposed to reduce spam calls by at least 50 per cent.
“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,” a WhatsApp Spokesperson said on Thursday.
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The company also disclosed that the grievance appellate committee – recently appointed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) – issued two orders to the app and both have been complied with.
In terms of user grievances, the platform received around 4,377 complaints. Out of these, some 4,100 were related to appeals to the ban. However, action was taken on only 234 accounts, the data shows.
“WhatsApp was built for private messaging and people most often use WhatsApp to communicate with people they already know. It’s a place where people chat with their close friends and family, and also a place where people can communicate privately with a business or speak confidentially with a doctor. Some of our users’ most personal moments are shared on WhatsApp, which is why we use end-to-end encryption, so only the sender and recipient can see the contents of messages,” the company said in the report.
