Khushi Shah – Mumbai Uncensored, 3rd May 2022
India is one of the major markets of WhatsApp with more than 400 million users. It is one of the most used ways to exchange text, image, video or document file with another person and business.
WhatsApp has been working on introducing features to enhance engagement on the platform. It has banned 18.05 lakh Indian accounts in March, on the basis of complaints from 597 grievance reports that were received from users between March 1-31, 2022 using the “abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users.
This was based on the new IT rules which came into effect last year that require large digital platforms (with over 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken. This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s own preventive actions to combat abuse on their platform.
In March 2022 after 597 grievance reports were received, and 74 accounts were “actioned” and 407 pertained to ‘ban appeal’ while others were in the categories of account support, product support and safety, among others.
“In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our report for the month of March 2022. This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform,” – A statement by a WhatsApp spokesperson.
Over the years several warnings have been issued against ‘Whatsapp’, in the wake of killings taking place across the country due to rumours that circulate through the app. The abuse of a platform like WhatsApp for repeated circulation of such provocative content has been of deep concern. The platform has consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state-of-the-art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep users safe.
These abusive accounts accounts were possibly banned for being involved in harmful activities such as harassment, forwarding fake information, duping other users, and more.WhatsApp over the last few years has also introduced several new features for limiting the spread of fake information on the platform including limiting forwarding messages, and more.
The company explains that abuse detection at WhatsApp 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.
