WhatsApp banned 20 lakh Indian accounts between May 15 and June 15

In its monthly compliance report, WhatsApp said it mandated the country's new Information Technology Rules.

The report showcased details of actions taken by social media and communication platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter.

"We consistently invest in technology, people and processes to keep our users safe and secure... Our top focus is preventing accounts from sending harmful or unwanted messages at scale. We maintain advanced capabilities to identify these accounts sending a high or abnormal rate of messages and banned 2 million accounts in India alone from May 15 - June 15 attempting this kind of abuse," WhatsApp said.

"WhatsApp [...] 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 added.

"The abuse detection operates at three stages of an account's lifestyle: at registration; during messaging; and in response to negative feedback, which we receive in the form of user reports and blocks. A team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time," the company said.

Though the report marked WhatsApp's compliance with conditions listed in the new IT rules, the company has filed a legal complaint in Delhi against the Indian government.

The Facebook-owned company had sought to block regulations that came into effect last month which experts say would compel the firm to break privacy protections.

The lawsuit asks the Delhi High Court to declare one of the rules a violation of privacy rights in India's constitution since it requires social media firms to identify the "first originator of information" when authorities demand it.