WhatsApp India bans 2.2 crore accounts in Jan-March

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp LLC banned 2,23,10,000 accounts during the January-March period in India, the company says in its monthly compliance report. In March alone, WhatsApp banned 7,954,000 accounts, of which 1,430,000 were proactively banned, the company says in its update.

In January 2024, the number of accounts that faced the axe was 6,728,000, of which 1,358,000 were proactively banned, the company adds. The accounts banned on WhatsApp from February 1-February 29 stood at 7,628,000, of which 1,424,000 were proactively banned.

The report mandated under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, says grievances were received from users in India via the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp. It also includes accounts mentioned in India through prevention and detection methods for violating the laws and orders received from the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC).

Compared to 2023's three-month period, the number of strikes declined this year. During the January-March period in 2023, the number of accounts banned stood at 12,231,306. Month-wise, the number of accounts facing strike stood at 2,918,000 (January 2023), 4,597,400 (February 2023), and 4,715,906 (March 2023), respectively.

WhatsApp says it receives grievances from users via e-mails that are sent to the grievance officer or emails sent to the India grievance officer via post.

Topic-wise, the grievances received from the grievance officer in March 2024 were the highest under the "ban appeal" category at 6,661, followed by 'account support' at 2,874, and other support at 2,338. In total, the company received 12,782 reports, of which 11 accounts faced action.

The company received five orders from the Grievance Appellate Committee, and the action was taken against all five. WhatsApp says to tackle abuse, it deploys tools and resources, which can prevent harmful behaviour on the platform. "The abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which we receive in the form of user reports and blocks," says the company report.

India is among the top three markets for the Meta-owned messaging giant, with the number of users estimated at over 500 million. With more internet penetration, this number is expected to reach 795.67 million by 2025.

The company is facing challenges in terms of complying with IT rules passed in 2021. On April 26, 2024, WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court that it will be forced to shut down in the country if it is asked to provide traceability to end encryption. The HC was hearing a petition by WhatsApp and Meta challenging the government's IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021. The rules mandate companies to trace original sources of information on their platforms.

Via its FAQs on the platform, WhatsApp says “traceability” can break end-to-end encryption as it can require WhatsApp to keep track of who-said-what and who-shared-what for billions of messages sent every day. "That’s because there is no way to predict which message a government would want to investigate in the future."