The Centre has asked Meta to pause WhatsApp’s proposed username rollout in India and submit an explanation within three days
The move followed concerns around impersonation, identity fraud, data sharing across Meta apps and compliance with India’s traceability rules
Notably, the government had earlier accused Telegram’s username-based identities feature of facilitating criminal activities and banned the platform
The Centre has reportedly issued a notice to Meta to pause the rollout of WhatsApp’s proposed username feature in India and furnish a detailed explanation within three days.
As per a report by ET, the government’s concern stems from the feature’s potential to be misused for impersonation and identity fraud. Apart from impersonation and identity fraud, policymakers were also examining possible implications for data sharing with other Meta apps — Facebook and Instagram.
The proposed feature allows users to connect with each other by using usernames instead of sharing phone numbers. Meta announced the launch of the feature yesterday.
This would shift WhatsApp closer to identity systems used by rivals Telegram and Signal while also reducing the exposure of personal phone numbers.
Meanwhile, a WhatsApp spokesperson told news agency ANI that the service to reserve usernames is not yet live and will be rolled out slowly this year. The platform also said that it has kept the usernames of public figures, government entities, celebrities and verified Meta accounts on hold to curb impersonation.
“… Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp and we’ve built multiple layers of defense against scams into usernames: Other users need to know the exact username to message you, we will limit how many new people an account can contact, block repeated attempts to guess someone’s username key, and have systems to detect and remove activity showing common impersonation and abuse patterns…,” added the spokesperson.
The feature also has the potential to create friction with traceability obligations under the IT Rules, 2021, as well as data protection expectations under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
ET quoted a Meta spokesperson saying that linking WhatsApp with Facebook or Instagram would remain optional for Meta in the future. Meta is yet to issue a statement on the Centre’s directions.
India is a critical market for Meta given that it is WhatsApp’s largest single-country market globally with over 500 Mn users on the platform.
The scrutiny reflected India’s increasingly assertive stance towards large social media intermediaries.
The government has stepped up enforcement expectations around grievance redressal, traceability and data governance for major digital platforms, while the Competition Commission of India had earlier investigated Meta and WhatsApp over privacy-policy-linked data-sharing concerns.
Meanwhile, Telegram, which also allows users to converse with each other without phone numbers, was at the centre of controversy around the recent NEET PG leak. Holding the social media platform accountable for providing a platform to disburse the leaked examination papers, the government ordered a temporary ban on it for a few days leading up to the reconvening of the examination.
The government alleged that Telegram’s cloud-based architecture, public channels, bots, large groups and username-based identities had enabled criminal activities ranging from cyber fraud and financial scams to drug trafficking, child exploitation, piracy and terrorism.
Earlier last week, the messaging platform was back in the spotlight after the Narcotics Control Bureau flagged the platform as a key channel for drug-related advertising.
(This story has been updated to add WhatsApp spokesperson’s comment)
Source: Inc42 - Startups
