These numbers were reported as part of WhatsApp India’s monthly report in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Indian Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The 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 the platform.
August’s number is very much in line with WhatsApp’s general trend. Earlier, in the month of July, the messaging platform had banned a similar number, at over 23 lakh accounts in the country, and 22 lakh accounts in June.
In August, WhatsApp said it received 598 grievance reports from India, and the platform actioned 19 of the reports. This is slightly higher when compared to July when WhatsApp received 574 grievance reports and actioned on 27 of them.
‘Accounts Actioned’ denotes reports where WhatsApp 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 explained.
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Out of the 598 grievance reports in August, 449 were ban appeals, and the rest were under other categories like support and safety.
“In addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp 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,” the company said.
WhatsApp added that over the years, it 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 on the platform.
As per the company, abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which is received 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,” the company said.
