The Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has banned over two million (2,069,000 to be precise) Indian accounts in October, reveals a compliance report published by the company. The company also received more than 500 grievance reports to address.
Over 95% of the bans are due to the unauthorized use of automated or bulk messaging/spam. Among the 500+ grievances report WhatsApp received, 146 were for account support, 248 were ban appeal, 53 for product support, 11 grievances raised safety concerns, and 42 were other types. Under the ban appeal requests, the company took remedial actions against 18 accounts. The corrective action could be either banning the account or restoring a previously banned account. Indian statements are identified by +91 phone numbers.
The data are revealed in WhatsApp’s compliance report, a monthly publication published in accordance with the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rule, 2021. The report contains details of the user complaints received by WhatsApp and the actions taken against them. The report also stated the preventive actions taken by WhatsApp to battle abuse on its platform.
AI tools to detect abuse
In addition to responding to grievances received by the company, WhatsApp deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour. WhatsApp says that it believes in stopping the harmful actions prior to happening than detecting them after the occurrence.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp emphasized that it has no visibility into the content of the messages sent across its platform due to end-to-end encryption. However, it depends on the unencrypted information, including the profile photos, group photos, user reports and descriptions, coupled with behavioural signals to take actions. The company uses advanced AI tools and resources to detect and prevent abuse via the platform.
The new IT rule came into effect in May 2020, and it requires digital platforms with over five million users to publish compliance reports every month.
WhatsApp expanding capabilities in India
In another development, Uber and WhatsApp have joined together to roll out ride-booking via messaging service in India. The service allows Uber users to send messages to a WhatsApp chatbot to book a ride. Currently, the service is said to be active in the Northern city of Lucknow and would soon expand to other parts of the country. Recently, WhatsApp also launched an in-app grocery ordering service for Reliance JioMart.
