WhatsApp banned some 70 million accounts in India between January and November 2023, according to the messaging app’s monthly reports.

Meta-owned WhatsApp said for Lok Sabha elections it is "actively investigating" all reports of fraud and illicit telemarketing to comply with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021).

Between March 1 and 31 this year, WhatsApp took action against 7.9 million accounts. As outlined in a report issued by WhatsApp in January 2024, the company had banned 69 million accounts till November 31 the preceding year.

In January 2023, WhatsApp banned 2.9 million accounts, followed by 4.5 million accounts in February, 4.7million in March, 7.4 million in April, 6.5 million in May, 6.6 million in June, 7.2 million in July, 7.4 million in August, 7.1 million in September, 7.5 million in October, and 7.1 million in November.

With the imminent release of another report featuring December data, it is expected that this figure will surpass the 70 million mark. Additionally, WhatsApp highlighted that over 20 million of these accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users were received.