WhatsApp has said that it banned over two million accounts in India in October in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.
WhatsApp also received 500 grievance reports in the same month, and took action on only 18 of those.
“In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our fifth monthly report for the month of October.
This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform,” said a WhatsApp Spokesperson.
“As captured in the latest monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 2 million accounts in the month of October,” the spokesperson added.
WhatsApp has over 400 million users in India. Meta, the newly-formed parent company of Facebook and its family of apps, on Wednesday said that it has removed more than 21.8 million pieces of content in October on Facebook and Instagram in India, as it faces intense scrutiny over user data privacy.
In September, more than 2.2 million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp while 560 grievance reports were received by the messaging.
About 2 million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp while 420 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in August.
It is worth mentioning here that WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government over a ‘traceability’ clause in the new Intermediary Rules 2021, which were notified in February this year.
In response, the Indian government has called WhatsApp’s act as a clear defiance and wants them to comply.—INP
