Instant messaging firm WhatsApp said 26.85 lakh accounts of Indian users were banned in September this year. The social media company released its India monthly report on Tuesday.

Following in the footsteps of other social media platforms, WhatsApp releases its monthly report on the first day of every month. The report is published under India Monthly Report under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The report also said it includes 8.72 lakh accounts which were barred proactively by the company's spam team. According to the ‘User Safety Report’, the number of accounts blocked in September were 15 percent more than the 23.28 lakh accounts it banned in August.

“Between 1 September, 2022 and 30 September, 2022, 2,685,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 872,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users. An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number,” the report stated.

According to the messaging platform, WhatsApp received 666 grievances in September but took action only against 23.

“We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred,” the report added.

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