WhatsApp banned over 2.2 mn accounts in June

Meta Inc-owned WhatsApp banned more than 2.2 million accounts in June, according to the social messaging platform’s User Safety Monthly Report released on Monday.

Similarly, Facebook acted upon 2.5 million pieces of content (posts, photos, videos, comments) for adult nudity/sexual activity, while photo and video sharing site Instagram, meanwhile, acted on 619,500 pieces of content in the same month.

The reports are in accordance with the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021.


WhatsApp received 632 reports (user complaints), of which 426 were ban appeals, and 64 of those requests were acted upon, the safety report noted.

In all, 2.21 million accounts were banned in the country. The platform had banned over 1.9 million bad accounts in May.

WhatsApp received 123 account support-related complaints, 35 product support reports, and 16 safety-related reports.

“In addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour on the platform. We are focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred,” the company said in the report.

The platform said the abuse detection operates at three stages of an account's lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which it receives in the form of user reports and blocks.

The grievance mechanisms were used to receive the complaints, and accounts were dealt with through its prevention and detection techniques for breaking the law or its terms of service.

The 13 policy areas which Facebook and Instagram looked at were adult nudity and sexual activity, bullying and harassment, child endangerment – nudity and physical abuse, child endangerment – sexual exploitation, dangerous organizations and individuals: organized hate, dangerous organizations and individuals: terrorism, hate speech, regulated goods: drugs, regulated goods: firearms, suicide and self-injury, spam, violent and graphic content, and violence and incitement.

Between June 1 and June 30, Facebook also received 564 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism. Eighty-seven of these reports were of fake profiles, 33 were of content showing the user in nudity or in a sexual act, 157 were of hacked accounts, 73 of lost access, 50 of bullying or harassment, 16 of inappropriate or abusive content, and 133 of other issues.

The government has been alleging that the compliance rate of user grievances by social media intermediaries is low. To address this issue, the Centre is proposing a Grievance Appellate Committee in its draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, which social media companies are resisting. ET reported last month that top internet companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, are drawing up the structure for a self-regulatory body to handle appeals by social media users in India over content and takedown issues.

Big digital and social media platforms with more than five million users must provide monthly compliance reports in accordance with the IT rules.