WhatsApp bans 26L bad accounts in India

New Delhi, November 1

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday said it banned more than 26 lakh accounts in India in September in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021, which are now being amended to put more responsibilities on social media platforms.

Safeguarding rights

Protection of constitutional rights of the Indian citizens is a must. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister

The messaging platform, which has nearly 500 million users (according to third-party data) in the country, received 666 complaint reports in September in India, and the records “actioned” were 23.

“In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our report for September 2022. This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The platform banned more than 23 lakh bad accounts in India in August.

Under the upgraded IT Rules 2021, major digital and social media platforms, with more than five million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.

Meanwhile, in a major push towards an open, safe, trusted and accountable Internet, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has notified some amendments aimed at protecting the rights of “Digital Nagriks”.

Currently, social media intermediaries are only required to inform users about not uploading certain categories of harmful/unlawful content. — IANS

Upgraded IT Rules

• Under the upgraded IT Rules-2021, major digital and social media platforms, with more than five million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports
• In a major push towards an open Internet, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has notified some amendments aimed at protecting the rights of ‘Digital Nagriks’