Facebook-owned popular instant messaging platform WhatsApp has banned more than 1.75 million Indian accounts.

While 602 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in November 2021, according to its compliance report.

In its latest report, the messaging platform said 17,59,000 Indian accounts were banned on WhatsApp during the period, PTI reported from New Delhi.

An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number, it added.

“Following the IT Rules 2021, we’ve published our sixth monthly report for November. This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

“WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Over the years, we have consistently invested in Artificial Intelligence and other state-of-the-art technology, data scientists and experts, and in processes, to keep our users safe on our platform,” the spokesperson said.

Previously, the Facebook-owned company had stated that more than 95 percent of bans are due to the unauthorized use of automated or bulk messaging (spam).

Over 2 million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp, while 500 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in October.

The latest report of WhatsApp said it has received 602 user reports, spanning across account support (149), ban appeal (357), other support (21), product support (48), and safety (27) during November 2021.

During this period, 36 accounts were “actioned” under the ban appeal category based on the reports received.