New Delhi [India], May 2 (ANI): About 4.7 million WhatsApp accounts were banned in the month of March and 1.7 million of those accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users' side, the instant messaging platform said in its monthly report.

In February, it banned about 4.6 million Indian accounts.

Also Read | Lunar Eclipse in May 2023: Know Date, Time, Live Streaming Details and Visibility of Penumbral Chandra Grahan in India and Around the World.

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

"Between 1 Mar, 2023 and 31 Mar 2023, 4,715,906 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,659,385 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users," the report titled India Monthly Report under the Information Technology said on Monday.

Also Read | The Kerala Story: Muslim Youth League Leader Offers Rs 1 Crore Prize Award To Prove Adah Sharma-Starrer's Claim That 32,000 Women From the State Joined ISIS.

In addition to responding to and taking action on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour on the platform.

"We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred," it said.

The abuse detection operates at three stages -- at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback which it receives in the form of user reports and blocks. (ANI)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)