WhatsApp Banned 1.32 Crore Plus Indian Accounts in 6 Months

Most smartphone users in India use WhatsApp to stay connected. While the platform has made life much easier, it has also become a platform for abuse. With misinformation, fake messages, scams, and hate messages flowing through the Meta-owned chat app, the new TI Rules 2021, also known as the Intermediary Guidelines and the Digital Media Code of Ethics, require that all Major social media platforms should share what steps they have taken to control abuse. Social media companies including WhatsApp are required to share a monthly report on the same.

WhatsApp recently announced that it blocked more than 20 lakh accounts (20,79,000) in India in December 2021 as these accounts were violating the terms of use and abusing the platform. WhatsApp is an end-to-end (E2E) encrypted platform. Theoretically, this means that WhatsApp cannot read your messages. In fact, it cannot listen to your calls or use any kind of content detection software to decode your messages. So if that's the case, how is WhatsApp banning accounts without seeing the messages? According to WhatsApp, it has an abuse detection mechanism that examines accounts at three stages: when the account is created, how messages are sent, and if too many users report or block the account.

Over 1.32 crore Indian WhatsApp accounts banned in 6 months

WhatsApp has informed the government and its users in India that more than Rs 1.32 crore has been banned in just 6 months after the new IT rules were enacted. WhatsApp first revealed in July 2021 that in the period of May 15, 2021, and June 15, 2021, 20 lakh accounts (20,11,000) were banned. In fact, every month after that, WhatsApp has banned around 20 lakh accounts on average. After the new IT rules of 2021 were passed, more than Rs 1.5 crore was banned. An Indian account is identified through a +91 mobile phone number, which is used to sign up for WhatsApp.

"Our systems can detect if a similar phone number has been recently abused or if the computer network used for registration has been associated with suspicious behaviour. As a result, we're able to detect and ban many accounts before they register — preventing them from sending a single message," explains WhatsApp in a detailed whitepaper.

If a bad player manages to get past the initial registration roadblock, WhatsApp then detects user behaviour. "Normal users operate relatively slowly on WhatsApp, tapping messages one at a time or occasionally forwarding content. The intensity of user activity can provide a signal that accounts are abusing WhatsApp," it said.

"For example, an account that registered five minutes before attempting to send 100 messages in 15 seconds is almost certain to be engaged in abuse, as is an account that attempts to quickly create dozens of groups or add thousands of users to a series of existing groups," it further added.