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WhatsApp has banned more than seven crore accounts in India in 2023, according to reports published by the Meta-owned messaging platform over the year.
Published under Rule 4 (1)(d) of the Information Technology Rules, 2021 Act, these accounts were banned for various reasons that ranged from grievances received from users and accounts that violated Indian laws or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service and complaints received from the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC).
From January 1, 2023, to November 30, 2023, the total number of accounts banned by WhatsApp stood at 69,307,254, which roughly translates to seven crore. However, these reports do not include data for December 2023, so the number of banned WhatsApp accounts is probably higher than seven crore. The company also stated that more than two crore of these accounts were banned before users reported them.
The company says “abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback” and that it happens when a user reports or blocks a particular account. This is then forwarded to a team of analysts that help determine if the accounts should be banned or not.
Last year, the Meta-owned platform received more than 79,000 grievance complaints from users for various reasons, following which the company took action against 2,398 accounts. According to WhatsApp, an account is ‘actioned’ when it is banned or a previously banned account is restored when the user complains about it.
Every month, WhatsApp releases a report that gives insight into the number of accounts that were banned in a particular month in India. The company says it identifies Indian accounts using the country’s ‘+91’ prefix code.
