Messaging platform WhatsApp banned over three million Indian accounts to prevent harmful behaviour and spam during the 46-day period from June 16 to July 31, 2021, according to the company’s monthly transparency report released on Tuesday.
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“WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state of the art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said.
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This is the second such report by instant messaging platform in accordance with the IT Rules 2021.
The company identifies an Indian account via a +91 phone number. As per the company, more than 95% of bans in India are due to the unauthorized use of automated or bulk messaging, resulting in spam. Globally, the monthly average of accounts banned on the platform is about 8 million.
The company also received a total of 594 grievances from users during the period relating to various issues such as ban appeal, product support, account support, safety support. Of this, the company took remedial action in 74 instances, of which 73 were related to ban appeals.
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According to WhatsApp, the majority of users who reach out to the company are either aiming to have their account restored following an action to ban them or reaching out for product or account support.
In the report, WhatsApp explained that in addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, it also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour on the platform.
“We are particularly 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,” it said, adding that the abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifecycle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which it receives in the form of user reports and blocks.
A team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time, it added.