The Meta-owned instant messaging app, WhatsApp, has announced that it has taken action against over 6.5 million problematic accounts in India during the month of May, in adherence to the new IT Rules 2021.
Out of these 6.5 million accounts, around 2.4 million accounts were proactively banned even before receiving user reports.
WhatsApp, which is one of the most popular messaging applications and has more than 500 million users in India, banned 7.4 million accounts in the month of April.
During the month of May, WhatsApp received 3,912 grievances reports, which also includes an appeal for unbanning from Indian users. The app took remedial action on 297 reports. The company's user safety guidelines outline the complaints WhatsApp received and the corresponding action taken by it to combat the abuse of the platform.
The government started a Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC), which aims to address appeals made by users against the social media platforms' decisions regarding content or other related issues.
The government aims to strengthen digital regulations and hold big tech companies accountable. The Ministry of Electronics and IT made amendments to protect the rights of Indian citizens in the digital realm.
WhatsApp has also started rolling out QR code chat transfers for its users. This latest feature will allow users to transfer chats from one device to another. This technique is best used when the user switches from an old device to a new one, and his chats will transfer in no time. The catch here is the QR code will work only if both devices work on the same operating system.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a Facebook post about the update of the latest WhatsApp feature. He wrote, "If you want to move your WhatsApp chats to a new phone, you can now do it more privately without your chats ever leaving your devices."