HIGHLIGHTS

WhatsApp says it had received 528 reports from users throughout the globe.

Taking action might mean either banning or deleting an account.

WhatsApp relies on publicly available, unencrypted data.

WHY IN NEWS

According to WhatsApp's compliance report, almost 2 million Indian accounts were blocked, and the messaging network received 528 grievance claims in December 2021. According to WhatsApp's most recent report, 20,79,000 Indian accounts were banned during the time period in question. More than 95 percent of suspensions, according to the Meta-owned corporation, are related to the unlawful use of automated or mass communications (spam). WhatsApp suspended almost 1.75 million Indian accounts in November, and the messaging network received 602 complaints reports. In its most recent report, WhatsApp claimed it received 528 user reports in December 2021, encompassing account support (149), ban appeal (303), other support (29), product support (34) and safety (13) issues.

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Based on the reports received, 24 accounts were 'actioned' in total during this time period under the ban appeal category (23) and other support (1). 'Accounts Actioned' refers to reports for which WhatsApp takes corrective action as a result of the report, according to WhatsApp. As a consequence of the complaint, either an account will be banned or a previously banned account will be reinstated. Also, reports may have been reviewed but not marked as 'Actioned' for a variety of reasons, such as the user requiring assistance to access or use certain features, the user requesting and being denied restoration of a banned account, or the reported account not violating Indian laws or WhatsApp's Terms of Service.

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The new IT laws, which took effect in May of last year, mandate that big digital platforms (with more than 5 million users) post monthly compliance reports detailing the details of complaints received and actions taken. WhatsApp previously said that it had no visibility into the content of any communications since it is an end-to-end encrypted network. To detect and prevent abuse on its platform, it uses public unencrypted information, including as user complaints, profile images, group photos and descriptions, as well as powerful AI algorithms and resources, it had claimed.