• Monday, March 18, 2024

News

WhatsApp bans 2.4 million Indian accounts in July

WhatsApp received a total of 574 grievance reports in July.

In this photo illustration taken on November 6, 2020, a user updates Facebook’s WhatsApp application on his mobile phone in Mumbai. (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Pramod Thomas

WhatsApp banned 2.39 million Indian accounts in July, the highest so far this year, the Meta-owned popular instant messaging app said last week in its monthly report.

The Asian nation’s stricter IT laws have made it necessary for large digital platforms to publish compliance reports every month.

Draft rules circulated in June proposed setting up a panel to hear user appeals, and said that significant social media messaging platforms shall allow identification of the first originator of information if directed by courts to do so.

Of the accounts barred, 1.42 million were “proactively banned,” before any reports from users.

Several accounts were banned based on complaints received through the company’s grievances channel and the tools and resources it uses to detect such offenses, the social media platform said. In July, WhatsApp received a total of 574 grievance reports.

The messsaging platform, which has been criticised earlier for spreading fake news and hate speech in the country, as well as elsewhere in the world, had taken down 2.21 million accounts in India in June.

(Reuters)

Related Stories

Videos

Mrunal Thakur on Dhamaka, experience of working with Kartik Aaryan,…
Nushrratt Bharuccha on Chhorii, pressure of comparison with Lapachhapi, upcoming…
Abhimanyu Dassani on Meenakshi Sundareshwar, how his mom Bhagyashree reacted…