Over two million accounts in India have been blocked by WhatsApp in May and June for violating rules. 95% of the blocked users were blocked for violating the limit on how many times a message can be forwarded in India. The submissions of blocked users were made in WhatsApp’s first monthly compliance report under India’s new IT rules.
WhatsApp has 400 million users in India, making it the largest market of users for the Facebook-owned messaging service. The limit on forwarding messages was in attempts to prevent accounts from sending harmful or unwanted messages at scale. WhatsApp bans close to eight million accounts across the world each month. WhatsApp has been the focus of discussions of misinformation and fake news in India. Mass messaging and circulating messages have resulted in mob violence in the past in India, and WhatsApp’s blocking of users attempts to prevent abuse on the platform.
Read more: WhatsApp blocks two million Indian accounts
