WhatsApp bans 23.28 lakh bad accounts in India as amended IT rules take shape
Adhering to IT Rules in India, WhatsApp banned 26.85 lakh accounts in India in September, including 8.72 lakh accounts that were barred proactively before being flagged by users. WhatsApps’ India office on Tuesday said the number of accounts blocked in September was 15 percent more than the 23.28 lakh accounts the messaging platform banned in August.
“Between 1 September 2022 and 30 September 2022, 2,685,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 872,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users. An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number,” Whatsapp said in its ‘User Safety Report’ for the month of September.
The tougher IT rules, which came into effect last year, mandate large digital platforms (with over 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken. Many social media firms headquartered in the United States have drawn flak in the past over hate speech, misinformation, and fake news circulating on their platforms. Concerns have been flagged by some quarters time and again over digital platforms acting arbitrarily in pulling down content, and ‘de-platforming’ users.
The government last week announced rules for setting up a grievance appeal mechanism against arbitrary content moderation, inaction, or takedown decisions of big tech companies. As per the new rules, the appeal forum formed by the government will take decisions within 30 days against the complaint against the decisions of the internal grievance forums of the Social Media companies. For serious violations, social media companies have to take decisions within 72 hours.[1]
According to the latest WhatsApp report, the platform received 666 grievances in September but took action only against 23. “In addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior on the platform. We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred,” the company said.
Reference:
[1] Government of India sets up appellate panels to complain against the decisions of Social Media companies – Oct 28, 2022, PGurus.com
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Useless statistics. Block & Back through side & front & back doors !! Are the names & individuals traced or banned or warned or cautioned ? What those groups or individuals doing or working or spreading on – fake news factories or jihadi groups or…etc.. ?
Nothing is up
Zuckerberg by another name.
Backside Jab