Between 1st September and 30th September 2023, a total of 7,111,000 WhatsApp accounts were prohibited, and out of these, 2,571,000 were banned proactively, prior to any user reports.
Meta-owned WhatsApp has reported that it took action against 7.11 million accounts in India during the month of September, in accordance with the IT regulations. Among these, 2.57 million accounts were proactively banned before any user reports were filed.
The country code '+91' was used to identify Indian accounts. The official report for September 2023 states, "Between 1st September and 30th September 2023, a total of 7,111,000 WhatsApp accounts were prohibited, and out of these, 2,571,000 were banned proactively, prior to any user reports."
This "user-safety report" provides insights into user complaints received and the actions taken by WhatsApp, including their efforts to prevent platform abuse. During September, six directives were received from the Grievance Appellate Committee, all of which were adhered to by WhatsApp.
In August, WhatsApp had previously banned 7.4 million accounts, with 3.5 million of them being proactively banned. In the latest report, WhatsApp disclosed that they received 10,442 user reports in various categories, such as account support (1,031), ban appeals (7,396), other support (1,518), product support (370), and safety (127).
A total of 85 accounts were acted upon based on the received reports. WhatsApp clarified that "Accounts Actioned" refers to instances where they took remedial actions as a response to the reported issues, which could involve either banning an account or restoring a previously banned account due to a complaint.
Some reports were reviewed but not included as 'Actioned' for various reasons, such as users requiring assistance with account access or certain features, user-requested restoration of banned accounts being denied, or cases where the reported account did not violate Indian laws or WhatsApp's Terms of Service.
"Safety related grievances pertain to issues that may be about abuse or harmful behaviour on the platform," the report said.
