According to new IT regulations implemented in India last year, large digital platforms (those with more than 50 lakh users) are required to publish compliance reports on a monthly basis, documenting the number of complaints received and the steps taken to resolve them.
In accordance with the regulations, WhatsApp has been publishing a ‘User Safety Report’ every month, which details the company’s efforts to prevent harmful behaviour on the network.
In September, WhatsApp received a total of 666 reports, with 23 of them resulting in account action. Taking action means either banning an account or restoring a previously banned account as a result of the complaint.
Furthermore, between September 1, 2022, and September 30, 2022, 2,685,000 or 26.85 lakh WhatsApp accounts were banned using abuse detection methods and resources. Before any user filed a complaint, 872,000 of these accounts were proactively banned.
Regarding the report, a WhatsApp spokesperson said,
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. In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our report for the month of September 2022.
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. As captured in the latest Monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 2.6 million accounts in the month of September.