WhatsApp bans record over 47 lakh bad accounts in India in March

NEW DELHI: Meta-owned WhatsApp banned a record of over 47 lakh bad accounts in India in the month of March, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021, the company said on Monday.

Between March 1 and March 31, "4,715,906 WhatsApp accounts were banned and 1,659,385 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users", WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report.

The most popular messaging platform, which has nearly 500 million users in the country, received another record 4,720 complaint reports in March in the country, and the records "actioned" were 585.

"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," said a company spokesperson.

Moreover, the company mentioned that the orders received from the Grievance Appellate Committee between March 1 and March 31 were 3, and orders complied with were also 3.

Meanwhile, in a bid to empower millions of Indian social media users, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently launched the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) that will look into their concerns regarding content and other issues.

The newly-formed panel, a move to strengthen the country's digital laws to tame the Big Tech companies, will look into appeals by users against decisions of social media platforms.

The IT Ministry last month notified to establish three GACs as required under the recently amended IT Rules, 2021.

In a major push towards an open, safe, trusted and accountable Internet, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has notified some amendments aimed at protecting the rights of 'Digital Nagriks'.