WhatsApp Explains Cause of Widespread Account Blocks

WhatsApp has explained that the blocking of a number of user accounts in Indonesia occurred due to a system error in detecting activity deemed to violate its terms of service.

WhatsApp’s Head of Public Policy for Asia Pacific, Esther Samboh, said the platform has a system capable of detecting activity that breaches its terms of service, one of which is spam.

“We always take proactive steps and continuously strive through various efforts at WhatsApp to circumvent things that violate WhatsApp’s terms of service in order to target genuine WhatsApp users,” Esther said at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs office in Jakarta on Wednesday.

She explained that WhatsApp uses a number of signals from user behaviour to help the system detect activity that potentially violates the terms of service.

However, an error occurred in that process, causing WhatsApp to block a number of user accounts that had not actually committed any violation.

“This was indeed a system error which we immediately mitigated,” Esther said.

Esther said the WhatsApp team promptly took mitigation steps after learning of the error. The company has also restored access to many accounts previously affected by the blocking.

She confirmed that the issue did not only occur in Indonesia, but was a system error that occurred globally.

As such, the blocking was not part of any action specifically targeting users or particular parties in Indonesia.

“This happened globally. So there was no coordinated effort aimed at Indonesia,” she stressed.

For users whose accounts remain blocked, WhatsApp provides an appeal mechanism directly through the application. Esther said every appeal will be reviewed by WhatsApp within less than 24 hours.

“Hopefully, after this update, a smoother remediation process can be carried out by affected users,” she said.

Esther said WhatsApp continues to evaluate and update its system to prevent similar errors from recurring.

“After the incident occurred, our team quickly carried out mitigation and substantively managed to mitigate the incidents that happened previously,” Esther said.