WhatsApp Blocked 29 Million Indian Accounts in January to Combat Harmful Cases

Messaging service WhatsApp has said that it has banned more than 29 lakh accounts in India in January. In addition to responding to and taking action on user complaints, WhatsApp also uses tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior on its platform, WhatsApp said.

WhatsApp spokesperson Said, “WhatsApp is at the forefront of preventing harassment in end-to-end encrypted messaging services. WhatsApp has continually invested in artificial intelligence and other technologies, data scientists, and experts to keep users safe on our platform.” WhatsApp received a total of 1,461 reports in January and 195 cases were selected for action. WhatsApp had received 51 reports on account support and more than 1,300 reports on ban appeal. The spokesperson said, “Under IT rules, we have published our report for January. This user safety report contains information about the complaints received from users and the action taken on them. In January, WhatsApp reported more than 29 lakh Accounts have been banned.”

The company says it places a strong emphasis on prevention because it believes stopping harmful activity before it happens is better than catching it after it happens. At the end of last year, hackers stole the data of millions of WhatsApp users. These included users from 84 countries including India, America, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Hackers tried to sell this data online.

It was reported in Cybernews that a hacking community forum claimed to sell the mobile numbers of 48.7 crore WhatsApp users by giving an advertisement on it. This information is used in phishing attacks. For this reason, WhatsApp users should avoid calls and messages from unknown numbers. This is not the first time that data has been stolen from the platforms of Meta, which is owned by Facebook and WhatsApp. Last year, a hacker had offered to give the information of more than 50 crore Facebook users for free. This included the phone numbers and other details of these users.