IANS | 03 May, 2024
Meta-owned WhatsApp has said it banned more than 79 lakh accounts in
India in the month of March, in compliance with the IT (Intermediary
Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Between the
March 1-31 period, 7,954,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned and
1,430,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports
from users, the company said in its monthly compliance report.
The
messaging platform, which has more than 500 million users in India,
received a record 12,782 complaint reports in March in the country, and
the records “actioned” were 11.
“Accounts Actioned” means reports
where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the plaint and taking
action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account
being restored as a result.
“We respond to all grievances received
except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a
previous ticket. An account is ‘actioned’ when an account is banned or a
previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint,” the
company said.
Between February 1-29, the company had banned “7,628,000 accounts”.
About 1,424,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users.
According
to the company, in addition to safety features and controls, “We employ
a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and
experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments
to oversee these efforts.”
