Every month, WhatsApp bans lakhs of accounts in India, and the picture remains the same in February. According to the IT Rules 2021, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform released its ninth monthly report for the month of February 2022, stating that more than 10 lakh WhatsApp accounts (1.4 million to be exact) were banned between February 1 and 28. These accounts may have been banned for engaging in detrimental behaviour on the network, such as harassing other users, spreading false information, and so on.
“Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state-of-the-art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform. In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our ninth monthly report for the month of February 2022. 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. As captured in the latest Monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 1.4 million accounts in the month of February,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an official statement.
The company has often said that all messages sent and received on the platform are end-to-end encrypted, which means that only the sender and receiver of the message can read it.
The messaging app’s monthly report also highlights the steps it takes to avoid destructive activity on the network. “We are especially focused on prevention since we feel it is far preferable to prevent harmful behaviour from occurring in the first place than to discover it after it has occurred,” the business stated.
WhatsApp has also developed anti-abuse technology that works at three points in an account’s life cycle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative input, such as user reports and blocks. “These systems are supplemented by a team of analysts who assess edge cases and help us enhance our efficacy over time,” WhatsApp added.
