WhatsApp bans 29 lakh accounts in India as country launches grievance panel

Meta-owned WhatsApp banned more than 29 lakh accounts in India in the month of January, a figure that is drastically lower than 36.77 lakh accounts it blocked in the country in December last year, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.

Between January 1 and January 31, "2,918,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,038,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users," the company said in its monthly compliance report.

The most popular messaging platform, which has nearly 500 million users in the country, received 1,461 complaint reports in January in the country, and the records "actioned" were 195.

"This 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," said a company spokesperson.

Meanwhile, in a bid to empower millions of Indian social media users, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Tuesday launched the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) that will look into their concerns regarding content and other issues.

The newly-formed panel, a move to strengthen the country's digital laws to tame the Big Tech companies, will look into appeals by users against decisions of social media platforms.

The IT Ministry last month notified to establish three Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) as required under the recently amended IT Rules, 2021.

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'.