Using ‘Abuse Detection’, WhatsApp Banned 7 Crore Indian Accounts from January to November 2023

WhatsApp banned close to 7 crore accounts between January and November 2023 in India, it said during its monthly reports.

WhatsApp has been releasing its monthly India reports in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) since July 15, 2021.

According to the messaging platform, “(The) reports contain information on actions taken by WhatsApp in response to: 1. grievances received from users in India via the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp, 2. accounts actioned in India through our prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service, (and) orders received from the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC).”

Banned Accounts

WhatsApp banned 69,307,254 accounts till November 30, 2023, as per the latest report for the month released by the messaging platform on January 1, 2024.

The following details show the number of accounts that were banned by WhatsApp every month since last January.

Since another report highlighting December data will be published next month, this number is expected to cross the 7-crore mark.

WhatsApp also noted that over 2 crore (24,378,890) of these accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users.

“The data shared highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp…using the aforementioned abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users…,” stated WhatsApp.

Grievance

As per the monthly reports, WhatsApp received more than 79,000 grievance complaints from users between January and November last year regarding account support, ban appeal, other support, product support, and safety. The platform then took action against 2,398 accounts.

These numbers are highlighted under the ‘Accounts Actioned’ sections in the reports. WhatsApp stated: “’Accounts Actioned’ denotes reports where we took remedial action based on the report. Taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of the complaint.”

The messaging platform also clarified that the reports may have been reviewed by the team but not taken any action for several reasons. These are:

• The user requires assistance from us to access their account.

• The user requires assistance to use one of our features.

• The user is writing to us to provide feedback regarding our service.

• The user requests restoration of a banned account and the request is denied.

• The reported account does not violate the laws of India or our Terms of Service.

However, the platform also complied with the 28 directives it received in total from the Grievance Appellate Committee.

The reports stated: “In addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior on the platform. We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred.”

WhatsApp noted that 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. A team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time.”