India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has ordered WhatsApp not to launch its planned usernames feature in the country until further consultations are complete, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The ministry, known as MeitY, has given Meta three days to explain why regulatory action should not follow the feature’s announcement.
WhatsApp said on 29 June that users would soon be able to reserve a unique username, letting people start conversations without sharing a phone number. Within 48 hours, MeitY had sent a formal notice telling the company to pause the rollout “until the consultation on this point is achieved to the satisfaction of the Government.”
The ministry’s stated worry is fraud. Its notice warns that usernames “may facilitate impersonation and identity spoofing, including impersonation of individuals, public authorities, financial institutions, and government agencies,” by letting people adopt handles that closely resemble those of real institutions.
That concern sits inside a wider run of digital arrest scams and phishing schemes that Indian regulators have spent much of the past two years trying to contain.
