WhatsApp bans record over 74 lakh accounts in India in April

Meta-owned WhatsApp has banned a record of over 74 lakh accounts in India in the month of April, the company said on Thursday while sharing its monthly report. 

"WhatsApp banned over 7.4 million accounts in the month of April and over 2.4 million of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users," a WhatsApp spokesperson was quoted as saying. 

WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging platforms and has around 500 million users in the country. It received 4,377 complaint reports in April in the country, and the records "actioned" were 234.

"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," the spokesperson said.

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"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," the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the Meta-owned company has \launched a new global Security Center which will help users to learn more about ways to protect themselves. According to the company, this will act as a one-stop shop for users and help them protect against spammers and unwanted contact.  

"WhatsApp has created this page to build awareness about the various safety measures and in-built product features that empower users to take control of their safety as well as more information on the ‘behind-the-scenes’ technology we use to run a simple, reliable, private and safe service," the company said.

The Security Center will be available in English and 10 Indian languages i.e. Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu and Gujarati.