Majority of the smartphone users in India use WhatsApp to stay connected. While the platform has made life a lot easier, it has also become a platform of abuse. With misinformation, fake messages, scams and hate messages flowing through the Meta-owned chat app, the new IT Rules 2021 aka Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, mandates that all significant social media platforms need to share what action they have taken to control abuse. Social media companies including WhatsApp need to share a monthly report on the same.
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WhatsApp recently announced that it has blocked over 20 lakh accounts (20,79,000) in India in December 2021 as these accounts were violating the terms of use and abusing the platform. WhatsApp is an end-to-end (E2E) encrypted platform. Theoretically, this means that WhatsApp can’t read your messages. In fact, it cannot hear your calls or use any kind of content detection software to decode your messages. So, if that’s the case then how is WhatsApp banning accounts without seeing the messages? According to WhatsApp, it has an abuse detection mechanism that screens accounts in three stages: when the account is made, how messages are sent and if the account is getting reported or blocked by too many users.
OVER 1.32 CRORE INDIAN WHATSAPP ACCOUNTS BANNED IN 6 MONTHS
WhatsApp has informed the government and its users in India that over 1.32 crore accounts have been banned within just 6 months after the new IT rules were enacted. WhatsApp revealed for the first time in July 2021, that in the time period of 15 May 2021 and 15 June, 2021, 20 lakh accounts (20,11,000) were banned. In fact, every month after that, WhatsApp has banned around 20 lakh accounts on an average. After the new IT rules 2021 were passed, over 1.5 crore accounts were banned. An Indian account is identified via a +91 mobile number, which is used to register on WhatsApp.
- 15 May, 2021-15 June, 2021: 20,11,000 WhatsApp accounts banned
- 16 June, 2021-31 July, 2021: 30,27,000 WhatsApp accounts banned
- 1 August, 2021-31 August, 2021: 20,70,000 WhatsApp accounts banned
- 1 September, 2021-30 September, 2021: 22,09,000 WhatsApp accounts banned
- 1 October, 2021-31 October, 2021: 20,69,000 WhatsApp accounts banned
- 1 November, 2021-30 November, 2021: 17,59,000 WhatsApp accounts banned
- 1 December, 2021-31 December, 2021: 20,79,000 WhatsApp accounts banned.In total, from 15 May to 31 December, 2021, WhatsApp banned 1,52,24,000 Indian accounts.
HOW WHATSAPP BANS ACCOUNTS WITHOUT SEEING MESSAGES
WhatsApp boasts a lot about it E2E encryption and it explains in its whitepaper that abuses on WhatsApp follow a certain pattern. This pattern is detected to eliminate bad accounts.
WhatsApp said that basic basic account information along with an IP address and associated telecom carrier information can be used by their machine learning systems to distinguish between bulk and normal registrations.
“Our systems can detect if a similar phone number has been recently abused or if the computer network used for registration has been associated with suspicious behaviour. As a result, we’re able to detect and ban many accounts before they register — preventing them from sending a single message," explains WhatsApp in a detailed whitepaper.
If a bad player manages to get past the initial registration roadblock, WhatsApp then detects user behaviour. “Normal users operate relatively slowly on WhatsApp, tapping messages one at a time or occasionally forwarding content. The intensity of user activity can provide a signal that accounts are abusing WhatsApp." it said.
“For example, an account that registered five minutes before attempting to send 100 messages in 15 seconds is almost certain to be engaged in abuse, as is an account that attempts to quickly create dozens of groups or add thousands of users to a series of existing groups," it added.
Lastly, WhatsApp claims to take user feedback seriously. If a particular account gets blocked by too many users or there are a lot of reports against that account then WhatsApp’s algo gets triggered.
“When a user sends a report, our machine learning systems review and categorise the reports so we can better understand the motivation of the account, such as whether they are trying to sell a product or seed misinformation," explains WhatsApp.
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