As per WhatsApp’s India Monthly Report under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2022, WhatsApp messenger banned 1.86 million Indian accounts in January 2022. The accounts were banned on the basis of complaints received from users through its grievances division and the company’s own mechanism to prevent and detect law violators.
Besides, WhatsApp has received grievances against 495 Indian accounts which appealed to ban 285 accounts, out of which 24 were banned. As per the company, the majority of the 1.8 million accounts were banned based on harmful behaviour detected through tools and resources deployed by the company in its app.
The company also noted that it identifies Indian accounts via ISD code of +91 prefixed before the 10-digit mobile number.
