''As captured in the latest Monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 2.9 million accounts in the month of January,'' a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

Between January 1 and January 31, 2023, as many as 2,918,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned, the report said adding 1,038,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users.

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

''In addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also deploys tools and resources to prevent harmful behavior 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,'' the report mentioned.