By now, you must already know that Meta is facing scrutiny in India over its WhatsApp username feature. The feature is designed to let people chat without sharing their phone numbers. The government believes this could increase scams in the country. Officials are worried that scammers may use usernames that look like those of real people, government departments or trusted organisations to fool users. Because of these concerns, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked Meta to pause the rollout of the feature in India and explain how it plans to prevent misuse. Since then, the company has defended the feature, met government officials and shared more details about its safety measures. Most recently, the government has given Meta more time to respond. Here is everything that has happened so far.
Last week, Meta announced a new WhatsApp username feature. It aims to allow users to chat without sharing their phone numbers. Instead, people can connect using a unique username. This feature would be especially useful when you want to message someone you just met, but don’t want to share your phone number.
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Just after Meta announced the feature, MeitY sent a formal notice to the company to pause the rollout and explain within three days how the username feature would prevent misuse and identity spoofing. The government believes usernames could make it harder to identify fraudsters because users would no longer need to share their phone numbers. Officials also fear that scammers could create usernames that closely resemble those of real people, government offices or trusted organisations to carry out phishing and impersonation scams.
After receiving the notice, WhatsApp shared a detailed explainer of the username feature on X. The company said usernames will be optional and not compulsory. It also clarified that users will not be able to find someone simply by searching for a username. “Just like you can’t search for a phone number in WhatsApp, you can’t search for a username,” the platform wrote.
WhatsApp also advised users to choose a unique username and enable a username key for extra security. It said that when username-based messaging launches later this year, users will see safety details before replying to someone new. This will include the sender’s country, whether the account is newly created and whether both users are part of any common groups.
To reduce impersonation, WhatsApp said well-known names and their variations have been reserved for their legitimate owners.
Following the notice, Meta team also met MeitY officials to explain the feature and address the government’s concerns.
Meta was originally asked to submit its response by July 6. However, MeitY has now reportedly extended the deadline by another three days. As per reports, Meta now has until July 9 to submit its detailed reply. The government will likely resume the rollout after the officials are fully satisfied with the safeguards.