Time To Stop Sending Good Morning Messages? WhatsApp To Ban 2 Million Accounts Every Month For Bulk Texting

Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp will be removing around two million accounts each month for automated behaviour or sending bulk messages, Economic Times has reported. Further, the platform will eliminate more than 75 per cent of those users without recent activity.

The company said that the efforts come mainly due to the importance of elections, during which various group attempt to send messages on a large scale.

In a statement, WhatsApp said, “While there are many actors trying to abuse the free service we provide, we are constantly advancing our anti-abuse operations to keep the platform safe.”

“We're able to detect and ban many accounts before they register a" preventing them from sending a single message. Roughly 20 per cent of account bans happened at registration time,” the statement adds.

WhatsApp is aiming to understand the behavioural cues which indicate bulk registrations among the 200 million users in India. The statement adds that WhatsApp systems will detect if a similar phone was recently abused or suspicious behaviour of filings over computer networks.

Further, the platform has identified a Grievance Officer for concerns regarding experience as part of operations in India. Whatsapp said that it initiated training for political parties participating in state elections in 2018. “We will expand this effort and work with the Election Commission of India in the lead up to the national election this year,” said WhatsApp.

Abhijit Bose was also hired recently to lead operations in the country, to build a team to develop relations with civil society and respond to the government regularly.

“This team will include local legal, policy and business teams that can work with our Indian partners on common goals, such as increasing financial inclusion and digital literacy across India,” the statement adds.