WhatsApp Deletes 2 Million Accounts per Month

In order to control the spread of fake news and misinformation, WhatsApp is deleting 2 million accounts on monthly basis.

A part of a white paper on “stopping abuse” launched in India, WhatsApp published the data. India has been the most challenging market for WhatsApp having over 200 million users. Its part in up to 30 mob lynchings has been highly criticized.

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WhatsApp has decided to present itself as a private messaging app designed for communication purposes among groups and individuals in response to the violence and scrutiny of apps like Facebook and Twitter.

WhatsApp also restricted the number of people to whom a direct message can be sent to just 5. In January this restriction was placed all over the world.

Matt Jones leader of  anti-spam engineering team at the company said, “We’re not here to give people a megaphone, we’re here for private messaging.”

He further elaborated that WhatsApp did find out expamples of different attackers rigging hardware to control more than one account simultaneously.

95% of the accounts that are being banned are due to the “abnormal WhatsApp behavior” noticed by the company.

About Indian Elections and voting behavior Carl Woog, the company’s head of communications said, “We engaged with political parties to send our firm view that WhatsApp is not a broadcast service and not a place to send messages at scale and to explain to them that we will be banning accounts that engage in automated or bulk behaviour.”