WhatsApp banned 17,59,000 accounts registered with an Indian mobile number in the month of November. The Meta-owned chat app said in its latest compliance report, published in January, that it decided to ban accounts using the abuse detection approach, which includes feedback from other users and their appeals via the app’s Report feature.
The compliance reports, which are due at the start of each month, are required by Rule4(1)(d) of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, which went into effect in 2021.WhatsApp, in these reports, highlights two things: grievances received from Indian users through different modes of sending grievances, such as email and snail mail, and the accounts that were “actioned” through WhatsApp’s “prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service.”
In November, WhatsApp received 602 reports from users who registered using an Indian mobile number. The most common user appeals were for account suspensions, with 357 in total. WhatsApp banned only 36 of the 357 accounts it probed. These 36 accounts are included in the total number of banned accounts, which is 17,59,000.
Among the other categories for which reports were received were “Account support,” “Product support,” and “Safety.” According to WhatsApp’s report, no action was taken on the appeals in these categories.
Furthermore, WhatsApp’s abuse detection tools are aimed at preventing harmful behaviour on the platform. Abuse detection works at three stages of an account’s life: during registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback. The final one contains the user reports and blocks.
Simply put, when you block and report someone, WhatsApp becomes aware of the activity and places the user under the scanner of its abuse detection. “A team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and aid in the long-term improvement of our effectiveness.”We will continue to bring more transparency to our work and include more information about our efforts in future reports,” said WhatsApp.
