WhatsApp says it banned over 2.2 million Indian accounts in September

WhatsApp banned more than 2.2 million Indian accounts in September, the Facebook-owned messaging platform has said in its compliance report for September.

In its latest report released on Monday, WhatsApp said it received 560 grievance reports in the month of September.

Also See | WhatsApp to offer cashback for using payments feature on iOS, Android: report

"WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. 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," a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, WhatsApp has published its fourth monthly report for the 30-day period of September 1-30.

Previously, WhatsApp had stated that more than 95 per cent of the ban was due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging. The global average number of accounts that WhatsApp bans to prevent abuse on its platform is around 8 million accounts per month.

The new IT rules, which came into effect in May, require large digital platforms with over 5 million users to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.