WhatsApp ban: WhatsApp released its monthly report in which it announced that it banned almost 1.5 million accounts in India in February 2022.
Whatsapp ban: Like every month, WhatsApp has published its monthly user safety report. The report highlights that the instant messaging platform banned 1,426,000 India-based accounts in the month of February. This is the ninth user safety report published by WhatsApp. During this month, it captured information between February 1 and February 28, 2022. The banned accounts were identified as Indian accounts based on the country code +91 at the start of the number. The report is published under Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology Rules (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Code of Ethics), 2021.
The aforementioned rule encompasses actions taken by WhatsApp in response to complaints received by Indian users through WhatsApp’s complaints mechanism. Additionally, accounts that violated Indian laws or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service were also banned.
WhatsApp bans nearly 1.5 million Indian accounts in February
This is not the first time that WhatsApp has banned a large number of accounts. Previously, the Meta-owned company banned around 2 million accounts in the month of January 2022. Previously, the messaging platform also banned a large number of users in the months of June and November 2021, where it banned 3 million accounts and 1.7 million accounts respectively. With the increase in incidents of fake news on social media, inciting violence through forwarded messages and spreading hateful messages towards a group or community, WhatsApp has tightened its control over the platform and vigilantly punished any malicious behavior.
How to contact WhatsApp if you have been unfairly banned
Even though WhatsApp has tightened its control over bans, sometimes a mistake can be made and WhatsApp may ban an innocent user. For cases like these, the instant messaging app provided a process for the banned person to file a grievance. Users can email [email protected] with their appeal in case they feel they have been unfairly banned from the platform. The email must have an electronic signature and the user’s contact number in international format. If the user is found to be innocent, the company claims that the account will be restored.
