WhatsApp bans over 85 lakh ‘bad’ accounts in India in September, ET BrandEquity

Representative imageWhatsApp said it has banned more than 85 lakh ‘bad’ accounts in India in the month of September. The Meta-owned platform said that 1,658,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users. As per the social media platform’s monthly compliance report under the new IT Rules 2021, WhatsApp received 8,161 grievances from the country, and the records “actioned” were 97 which means WhatsApp took remedial action.

WhatsApp said that it received two orders from the Grievance Appellate Committee in the country and complied with both.

What WhatsApp said

“We will continue with transparency to our work and include information about our efforts in future reports,” said WhatsApp. “We enable users to block contacts and to report problematic content and contacts to us from inside the app. We pay close attention to user feedback and engage with specialists in stemming misinformation, promoting cybersecurity, and preserving election integrity,” the company added.

How WhatsApp detects account abuse

WhatsApp says that it detects abuse at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback. A team of analysts then augments these systems to evaluate edge cases.

A month earlier – between August 1, 2024 and August 31, 2024, 8,458,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. The platform said that 1,661,000 of these accounts were proactively banned.

The three companies were set to add more than $70 billion combined to their market capitalizations. Shares of Alphabet rose 6% in premarket trading, while Reddit jumped 23% and Snapchat-parent Snap climbed 13.4%.

• Published On Nov 4, 2024 at 01:40 PM IST

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