GUWAHATI: Whatsapp, a Facebook-owned messaging company is removing at least two million accounts each month that is considered bulk or automated behaviour. They will also remove 75 percent of accounts that exist without recent user reports.
According to the messaging company, this initiative is extremely important during the elections as certain groups might try to send out bulk messages.
In a statement, representatives from the company said that they are constantly trying to advance their anti-abuse operations to keep the platform safe even though there are many entities that try to abuse their free service. They explained that they are able to detect and ban many accounts before they register which prevents them from sending a single message. Approximately 20 percent of account bans happen during the registration process.
With a user base of over 200 million users in India, the company aims to understand the various behavioural cues that indicate bulk registrations. They explained that their systems can detect if a phone number has been recently abused or if the computer network used for registration has been associated with suspicious behavior.
The company has also said that it had facilitated training for political parties in states that were part of the elections in 2018.
In a statement, the representatives from Whatsapp have said that they want to expand this effort and work with the Election Commision of India leading up to the national elections this year.