WhatsApp bans over 37 lakh accounts in November; up almost 60% from October

Of the total accounts banned in November, WhatsApp said almost 10 lakh accounts were proactively banned which means it was done before any reports from users.

WhatsApp published these numbers as part of the guidelines under the new IT Rules 2021 that mandates big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, to publish monthly compliance reports.

“WhatsApp banned over 3.7 million accounts in the month of November,” a WhatsApp Spokesperson said in a statement. “In addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior on the platform.”

The company explained that the abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle – at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback that comes in the form of user reports and blocks. WhatsApp said a team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve its effectiveness over time.

In November, WhatsApp said it received 946 grievance reports from India, and the platform actioned 74 of the reports. Out of these grievance reports, 830 reports were for a ban appeal, and the rest were under other categories like support and safety, the company said.

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This number too was slightly higher than that of October when WhatsApp received 701 grievance reports, and the messaging platform actioned on 34 of them. An account is ‘actioned’ when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint.

“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,” the spokesperson added.