WhatsApp bans over 74 lakh bad accounts in India in Aug

Meta-owned WhatsApp banned a record over 74 lakh bad accounts in India in the month of August, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.

Between August 1-31, the company banned "7,420,748 accounts". 

About 3,506,905 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report. 

The most popular messaging platform, which has over 500 million users in the country, received another record 14,767 complaint reports in August in the country, and the records "actioned" were 71. 

"Accounts Actioned" denotes reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the report and taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result. 

"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," according to the company. 

Moreover, the company received only one order from the Grievance Appellate Committee in the country in August, and complied with it

In a bid to empower millions of Indian social media users, the Centre recently launched the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) that looks into their concerns regarding content and other issues. 

The newly-formed panel, a move to strengthen the country's digital laws to tame the Big Tech companies, will look into appeals by users against decisions of social media platforms. 

"We are an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services in preventing and combating abuse. In addition to our 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," said WhatsApp.