In August, WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, Inc., banned approximately 74 lakh accounts in India, aligning with the country's IT rules, as revealed in the messaging platform's most recent monthly report for India.
Out of these, 35 lakh accounts were proactively banned by WhatsApp before receiving any user reports, demonstrating the platform's commitment to user safety and adherence to regulatory norms.
What does WhatsApp's user safety report say?
The 'user-safety report' released by WhatsApp provides insights into the user complaints received and the actions undertaken by the platform in response. It also sheds light on WhatsApp's preventive measures to curb abuse on the platform.
According to the report, between August 1 and August 31, a total of 7,420,748 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 3,506,905 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users," the report stated.
Furthermore, the company disclosed that it received only one order from the Grievance Appellate Committee in India during August and has complied with it.
The Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) was recently instituted by the Centre to address user grievances pertaining to content and other related issues on social media platforms. The establishment of this committee is a step towards strengthening digital regulations and managing user appeals against decisions made by social media platforms.
WhatsApp introducing a new reply bar feature
In addition to its regulatory compliance efforts, WhatsApp is reportedly introducing a new reply bar feature, aimed at facilitating quicker responses to images, videos, and GIFs.
According to a report by WABetaInfo, The will be available to users viewing media within conversations, following the installation of the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.20.20 update from the Google Play Store.
The introduction of the reply bar will allow users to respond to specific media within a chat without exiting the current screen, thereby preserving the conversational flow and context related to the shared content.
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