WhatsApp Banned 71 Lakh Accounts in India In A Month: Here Is Why?

WhatsApp banned more than 71.1 million accounts that included victims and scammers. To find out why, keep reading.

WhatsApp Banned 71 Lakh Accounts in India

The majority of the high-profile internet scams that occurred in 2023 involved scammers who contacted their victims over WhatsApp. Scams reached epidemic proportions, compelling the Indian government to demand accountability from the business. Approximately 71 lakh accounts in India were banned by WhatsApp in November 2023, according to recent sources. According to a report by IANS, WhatsApp announced on Monday that it had denied an unprecedented number of accounts—more than 71 lakh—in India for November 2023 to comply with the new IT Rules 2021. According to the monthly compliance report, the corporation proactively banned 19,54,000 accounts between November 1 and November 30 before it received any user reports.

Here is what a user shares:

According to the report, WhatsApp received 8,841 reports of complaints in November. WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in India, with over 500 million users. The phrase “accounts actioned” describes cases where WhatsApp implemented fixes in response to these reports. The consequence of this action can be the suspension or reinstatement of an account.

Also included in WhatsApp’s user safety report were details regarding user complaints and the platform’s responses to such complaints. It also detailed WhatsApp’s policies and procedures for preventing misuse of the service. To address the concerns voiced by millions of Indian social media users on content and other matters, the Centre established the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) in line with these endeavors.

Another user shares:

Users can now appeal judgments made by social media platforms to the newly formed panel. WhatsApp also highlighted its dedication to addressing and stopping abuse. Engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and specialists in cybercrime, internet security, and technological advancement are part of the company’s committed team that monitors and supports these initiatives.

Also, this year will be a watershed moment for Android WhatsApp users: the service will discontinue its free chat backup feature. For a long time now, Google has made it easy for WhatsApp users to back up their conversations to Google Drive without using up their 15GB of free data. However, it will all be changing this year. Those using the free 15GB limitation on Google Drive will have their storage restrictions affected in the first half of this year when these WhatsApp chat backups begin to contribute to those limits. Because of this change, those who were using Google Drive to save essential conversations and memories will now have to think about getting more storage through Google One with WhatsApp.

With this strategic move, Android practices are brought in line with the storage constraints that are currently in place in Apple’s iCloud. There are three primary monthly or yearly options available through Google One, the subscription name for Google Drive.