India Orders WhatsApp to Freeze Username Feature Rollout Over Fraud Concerns
Published
Key Takeaways
- Rollout Frozen: India's July 1 letter gave WhatsApp three days to justify its username feature and barred the rollout pending consultations.
- Fraud Concerns: The government warns the feature could increase online fraud, phishing, and impersonation by hiding phone numbers.
- Still Required: Nonetheless, phone numbers will still be required to create an account with the service.
India has asked WhatsApp to justify its planned username feature and freeze the rollout in its biggest market, escalating a crackdown on messaging anonymity that began with Telegram, according to a government letter. The intervention follows India's temporary block of Telegram and years of run-ins with Elon Musk's X over content-takedown orders.
Earlier this week, Meta's WhatsApp said it had begun a phased global rollout, including in India, of the feature, which lets users reserve a unique username and eventually message others without sharing their phone numbers.
India Freezes WhatsApp Username Rollout
The July 1 letter, reviewed by Reuters, addressed to WhatsApp's chief compliance officer in India, gave the company three days to respond and barred the rollout until consultations concluded.
The letter said the feature could materially increase online fraud, phishing, and impersonation attacks by allowing bad actors to contact victims without disclosing their phone numbers.
A June home ministry report similarly flagged Telegram's use in cyber fraud, with the messaging app losing a legal challenge against its temporary ban last month. India based its warning on the IT law, under which platforms lose liability protection if they fail to observe due diligence rules.
WhatsApp and Rights Groups Respond
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the feature was not yet live, would roll out slowly later this year, and still requires a phone number to register, Reuters noted.
The Internet Freedom Foundation said the directive lacked clear legal footing, calling it an attempt to decide "what a company may build and ship" and noting that it had "no clear basis in law".
The Netherlands ' intelligence agencies warned in March that a Russian phishing operation targets Signal and WhatsApp accounts of high-value individuals.
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