Meta-owned WhatsApp on Wednesday, December 21, said it banned over 37 lakh 'bad' accounts in India in the month of November in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021, which are being amended to put more responsibilities on social media platforms. Between November 1 and November 31, 3,716,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned and 990,000 of these accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users, said the company.

The messaging platform, which has more than 400 million users in the country, received 946 complaint reports in November in the country, and the records 'actioned' were 74. "In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we've published our report for the month of November 2022. As captured in the latest Monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 3.7 million accounts in the month of November," according to a WhatsApp spokesperson.

Under the upgraded IT Rules 2021, major digital and social media platforms, with in excess of 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports. Meanwhile, in a major push towards an open, safe, trusted and accountable Internet, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has notified some amendments aimed at protecting the rights of 'Digital Nagriks'. The amendments impose a legal obligation on intermediaries to take reasonable efforts to prevent users from uploading such content.