WhatsApp banned over 23.28 lakh Indian accounts in August, of which over 10 lakh accounts were proactively taken down before any report from users, the messaging platform said on Saturday. This is lower than the level seen in the previous month. Over 23.87 lakh Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp in July.
“Between 1 August, 2022 and 31 August, 2022, 2,328,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,008,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users,” WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report.An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number.Over 22 lakh Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp in June on the basis of complaints received via its grievance redressal channel and through its own mechanism to detect violations. Earlier, 19 lakh such accounts were banned by WhatsApp in May, 16 lakh accounts in April, and 18.05 lakh in March.The tougher IT rules, which came into effect last year, mandate large digital platforms (with over 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.