Taxing gatekeepers~I
By 2016-17, Facebook had designed a business model that aimed at maximising the ‘user engagement’, that is how much time users spent on their platform, and started collecting data on what they liked and shared.
The instant messaging app, WhatsApp, said it has banned some 70 million accounts in India between January and November 2023.
In its monthly report, the Meta-owned platform also said that for the Lok Sabha election, it is actively investigating all reports of fraud and illicit telemarketing to comply with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021).
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Between March 1 and 31 this year, WhatsApp took action against 7.9 million accounts.
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In January 2023, WhatsApp banned 2.9 million accounts, followed by 4.5 million accounts in February, 4.7million in March, 7.4 million in April, 6.5 million in May, 6.6 million in June, 7.2 million in July, 7.4 million in August, 7.1 million in September, 7.5 million in October, and 7.1 million in November.
With the imminent release of another report featuring December data, it is expected that this figure will surpass the 70 million mark. Additionally, WhatsApp highlighted that over 20 million of these accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users were received.
WhatsApp said that the “reports are published in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). These reports contain information on actions taken by WhatsApp in response to: Grievances received from users in India via the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp; Accounts actioned in India through our prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service.”
“The data shared highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by WhatsApp…using the aforementioned abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users,” it said.
According to the monthly reports, WhatsApp received over 79,000 grievances from users between January and November last year, covering account support, ban appeals, other support, product support, and safety concerns. In response, the platform took action against 2,398 accounts.
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