New Delhi: WhatsApp, owned by Meta, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has banned more than 26 lakh accounts in India. To do this, the company has cited the new IT Rules 2021 on Tuesday. According to the company, these are the people who are being revised with more responsibility on the social media platform in the month of September.
WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging platform, has more than 500 million users in India. In September, 666 complaint reports were received in the country and action was ensured on 23.
A company spokesperson said in a statement, “As per the IT Rules 2021, we have published the report for the month of September 2022. This user-safety report details complaints received and related actions taken by WhatsApp, as well as actions taken by WhatsApp to combat abuse on our platform.”
Let us tell you that in August, the company had banned more than 23 lakh objectionable accounts in India. Under the new IT Rules 2021, major digital and social media platforms, which have over five million users, are required to publish monthly compliance reports.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has notified certain amendments aimed at protecting the rights of ‘digital citizens’. Currently, social media moderators are only required to inform users not to upload certain categories of harmful/illegal content.
Moderators have a legal obligation to make reasonable efforts to prevent users from uploading such content. Union Minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar said that it is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of Indian citizens. The amendments were notified after the ministry followed a detailed public consultation process involving all stakeholders. The new provisions will ensure that the liability of arbitrators is not a mere formality.
