WhatsApp, instant messaging platform, banned 18.58 lakh (1.85 million) Indian accounts in January 2022 following complaints received from users through its grievances division, according to a monthly report published on Tuesday.

Meta-owned messaging app received grievances against 495 Indian accounts which appealed to ban 285 accounts, out of which 24 were banned.

The majority of the accounts were banned for harmful behaviour detected through tools and resources deployed by WhatsApp.

"The data shared (banning of 18.58 lakh accounts)...highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by 

WhatsApp between 1 January, 2022 - 31 January, 2022 using the aforementioned abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users via our 'Report' feature," said WhatsApp's India Monthly Report under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2022.WhatsApp published India Monthly Report under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2022.

WhatsApp identifies Indian accounts via ISD code of 91 prefixed before the 10-digit mobile number. 

Over two million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp in December 2021. WhatsApp had then said 20,79,000 Indian accounts were banned on WhatsApp during the said period.