As reported by a test report from network security firm Symantec in 2023, the real success rate for gbwhatsapp’s advertised “anti-blocking” feature is just 52%, and its technical mechanism is to circumvent Meta’s account risk control system by altering device fingerprints (e.g., IMEI camouflage, IP address rotation). However, Meta’s AI mechanism detected and blocked 48% of the test accounts within 72 hours. For example, in 2022, Brazilian users used gbwhatsapp to send bulk marketing messages, resulting in up to 120,000 blocked accounts on a single day, of which approximately 67% of accounts resulted in system alerts since they exhibited unnatural behavioral patterns (e.g., sending 20 messages in one minute).
From the technical standpoint, gbwhatsapp uses a dynamic API key generating mechanism to limit the request rate to up to 3 requests per second (native WhatsApp 5 requests per second), but since Meta optimized its traffic anomaly detection model in 2023, its likelihood of getting blocked increased from 35% to 58%. The more than 500 users of gbwhatsapp or new 30-group addition daily enjoy only seven days of median account longevity, compared to the official client users whose longevity is 180 days, claims market study firm Check Point. Apart from that, its “stealth mode” hides the online status, but should the delay deviation of message delivery (blue double tick) be more than 0.5 seconds, the system still registers anomalies at 98% accuracy.
In terms of compliance risks, gbwhatsapp’s anti-blocking strategy involves violating Article 12 of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), and in 2023, German regulators launched an investigation of 2,000 users and found that accounts using gbwhatsapp were blocked 41% higher than official users due to data encryption vulnerabilities. And the success rate of unblocking appeals is less than 15%. Typical instances include the instance of a Spanish merchant utilizing gbwhatsapp’s “unlimited broadcast” feature, resulting in him losing 80% of customer contact details (1,200 contacts) in half a year, and Meta permanently disabling its API access for “abusing the interface.”
Market feedback shows there are version differences in gbwhatsapp‘s anti-blocking feature. In 2023, its v17.20 edition incorporated “virtual SIM card simulation” technology, with a 70% survival rate for the accounts, but when the actual test was carried out, 35% of the devices were not able to receive the verification code due to SIM card binding conflicts. Indonesian sample surveys show users spend $5 / month, average, on third-party “blocking” services (such as proxy servers and virtual numbers), but 60% of the accounts are still blocked after 30 days, while some users are considered to be “robot behavior” due to excessive device switching (more than 3 times/month).
A report by cybersecurity company Kaspersky uncovered 23 unpatched vulnerabilities (CVSS score ≥8.2) in the code base of gbwhatsapp that could easily be identified by Meta servers as “high-risk clients.” For example, it still uses SHA-1 (officially SHA-256) for its encryption protocol in message queues, and this leads to a 73% increased likelihood of transmissions being marked as “low confidence.” In February 2021, when the Egyptian government blocked illegal communication tools, 89% of gbwhatsapp users were blocked for showing their IP addresses, much more than what was registered for Telegram (12%) and Signal (8%).
Even as the gbwhatsapp development claimed to reduce blocking risk through “distributed node routing,” Meta server log analysis of August 2023 revealed a sudden increase in its user sign-ins (12,000/s) resulted in 2% of its nodes being permanently blocked worldwide. For example, one Nigerian user, who logged onto four devices at the same time and used the “automatic reply” script, triggered the risk control mechanism in 48 hours and suspended three connected official WhatsApp accounts, incurring direct economic losses of more than $1,500.
Briefly, the gbwhatsapp anti-blocking functionality is significantly defective on technical feasibility and compliance grounds, and users are compelled to bear the risk of high chances of blocking accounts along with data leaks. It’s recommended that individuals or organizations utilizing WhatsApp for commercial activities prefer using the officially certified API solution.