WhatsApp has imposed bans on over 3 million Indian accounts during June and July this year. The messaging giant banned the accounts based on user reports on its platform, its Indian Grievance Officer, and reports of its automated tools. The company states that it took the steps to ban the accounts to keep its platform safe and spam-free.
The Facebook-owned company recently published its User Safety Monthly Report under the New IT Rules, 2021 of India. As per the report, WhatsApp banned 3.027 million accounts in India from June 16 to July 31. Although only 73 accounts were banned based on user reports, the rest were detected by WhatsApp’s automated abuse detection system on the platform.
The report states that out of the 3 million bans, WhatsApp received only 316 users appeals for bans through its appointed India Grievance Officer. Out of these, only 73 accounts were actually banned by the company for harmful behavior on the platform. Furthermore, amongst the total 594 grievances received from Indian users, 137 were related to account support. The rest were related to safety and product-related issues.
So, the majority of the bans were detected by the platform’s automated tools. As per WhatsApp, its automated system for abuse detection works at three stages of the life cycle of an account – at registration, during a chat session, and when the system receives any negative feedback from other users. The system is operated by a team of analysts to evaluate complex cases and further improve the system.
Plus, WhatsApp is also working on other features like calling to verify the legitimacy of user accounts. However, the company might also soon ease the ban review process for banned accounts on the platform.
So, if you have a grievance regarding the services and features of WhatsApp, you can send an email to wa@support.whatsapp.com. And if you are being harassed or spammed by accounts on the instant messaging platform, you can block those accounts on the app. WhatsApp will take it as negative feedback for the said accounts and will take necessary actions.
