WhatsApp banned over 3 million accounts in India in the period between June 16 and July 31, the company claimed in its second and latest Transparency Report, filed Tuesday, August 31. The bans were enforced largely to prevent spam on the platform, and 95 percent of the banned accounts were removed from the platform due to unauthorised use of automated messaging on the app, which resulted in spam. The report also claimed that WhatsApp received 594 grievance reports from users during the above mentioned 46-day period, most of which were related to users attempting to have their account bans reversed.
Of the grievance reports received during this period, WhatsApp has said that it took remedial actions and recourses in 74 cases, out of which 73 were linked to account bans only. WhatsApp added explanations to how it bans accounts, stating that detection of abuse on its platform occurs at three stages – once when an account is newly registered, subsequently during regular messaging (where WhatsApp uses app metadata to gauge behaviour), and finally in response to user reports, which includes negative feedback in the form of reported spams or blocking of accounts.
A WhatsApp spokesperson added on the matter, “We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred. WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. 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”
This is the second transparency report that WhatsApp has published in India, after the new IT Rules, 2021 mandated, among other things, regular transparency reports from social media beneficiaries in order to remain compliant and be protected as an intermediary in India. The new rules caused plenty of furore in terms of how they impact social media platforms operating in India, and Twitter in particular was pulled out for failure to comply with the new rules. The IT Rules 2021 also mandated the appointment of a Nodal Contact and Grievance Officer to coordinate with government compliance requests – and also ensure furbishing of Transparency Reports regarding actions taken on users by the companies.
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