Just when we were wondering if the federal government in India had softened its stance on data encryption, here comes news that WhatApp had actually banned as many as 2.2 million accounts in the country. That too in just September.
In its latest monthly report on data analysis and ethical usage, the Facebook-owned messenger application said it had received 560 grievances during the month that included 21 instances of account support, 309 ban appeals and sundry others that revolved around product support and general grievances.
WhatsApp says that while 51 accounts were actioned based on the reports received, it does not specify specific actions that were taken. It does mention that remedial action was initiated based on the grievances.
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The company also highlighted that as an industry leader, it was imperative that WhatsApp prevented abuse. "Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state of the art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, in order to keep our users safe on our platform," the report said.
This is the fourth such user-safety report published by WhatsApp and contains all details of user complaints and action taken by the company to redress grievances and its own efforts to prevent future abuse on the platform.
In the past, the company had said that more than 95 per cent of the bans were on account of unauthorised use of automated bulk messaging that is categorised as spam by the business. The global average of accounts that get banned to prevent abuse on the platform is around 8 million accounts a month.
Since the company offers end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp relies heavily on the unencrypted data that includes user reports, profile details including photos and descriptions besides use of advanced AI tools and resources to detect and prevent abuse on the platform.
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