WhatsApp publishes compliance report; bans over 20 lakh Indian accounts in a month

July 15: Facebook-owned messaging company WhatsApp banned more than 20 lakh Indian accounts for abusing the platform’s services between 15 May and 15 June, 2021. This was revealed by the company said in its first compliance report published under India’s new IT Rules. “More than 95 percent of such bans are due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging ( or spam),” WhatsApp said.

The IT rules, which came into effect for social media intermediaries with over 50 lakh users on May 26 this year, require the intermediaries to “publish periodic compliance report every month mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon.

Facebook released its first transparency report earlier this month, in which the company said it took action on 2.5 million posts for violent and graphic content, on 1.8 million posts for nudity, sexual activity, and 3 lakh posts for hate speech, between May15-June15 in India. Facebook also took action on 1 lakh posts for terrorist propaganda, 75,000 posts for organised hate, the report shows.