According to its latest monthly report, WhatsApp banned more than 4.7 million Indian accounts in March, with over 4.5 million accounts banned in February and 2.9 million in January, while also adhering to all three orders received from the newly-formed Grievance Appellate Committee between March 1st and 31st, 2023. The platform received almost 4,720 grievance reports, and during March, 585 accounts were “actioned.”
“Accounts Actioned’ denotes reports where we took remedial action based on the report. Taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of the complaint.”Whatsapp in a statement.
According to its report, WhatsApp has measures in place to prevent harmful behavior on the platform in addition to addressing user complaints through the grievance channel. The company emphasized the importance of prevention, stating that it is better to prevent harmful activity from occurring in the first place rather than detecting it after the fact. WhatsApp’s abuse detection system operates at three stages of an account’s life cycle, namely during registration, messaging, and in response to negative feedback, including user reports and blocks. A team of analysts also evaluates edge cases to improve the effectiveness of these systems over time.
