WhatsApp Banned 2.4 Million Indian Accounts in July

WhatsApp banned 2.39 million Indian accounts in July, the highest so far this year, according to the group’s monthly report, released late on Thursday.

The popular instant messaging app – owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook – said that of the accounts barred, 1.42 million were “proactively banned,” before any reports from users.

Several accounts were banned based on complaints received through the company’s grievances channel and the tools and resources it uses to detect such offenses, the social media platform said.

India’s stricter IT laws now require large digital platforms to publish compliance reports every month.

Draft rules circulated in June proposed setting up a panel to hear user appeals, and said that significant social media messaging platforms should allow identification of the first originator of information if directed by courts to do so.

In July, WhatsApp received a total of 574 grievance reports.

The messsaging platform, which has been criticised earlier for spreading fake news and hate speech in the country, as well as elsewhere in the world, took down 2.21 million accounts in India in June.