The Indian government has directed WhatsApp to justify its planned username feature and suspend its rollout in the country pending regulatory consultations.
According to a government letter reviewed by Reuters, authorities have given WhatsApp three days to explain the feature while instructing the company not to proceed with its launch in India until discussions are concluded.
The move follows WhatsApp’s recent announcement that it had begun rolling out username reservations globally ahead of a wider launch later this year. The feature will allow users to communicate using unique usernames instead of sharing their phone numbers.
India, WhatsApp’s largest market with more than 500 million users, has raised concerns that the feature could increase online fraud, phishing and impersonation by allowing users to conceal their phone numbers.
The government’s intervention comes weeks after it temporarily blocked Telegram over similar concerns relating to user anonymity.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the username feature had not yet gone live and would be introduced gradually later this year.
The company added that users would still need a phone number to create a WhatsApp account and that anyone wishing to contact another user must know the person’s exact username.
WhatsApp also said it had built several safeguards into the feature, including limits on how many new users an account can contact and protections against repeated attempts to guess usernames.
According to the government, the proposed feature could make it more difficult to identify malicious actors involved in cyber fraud.
The directive cites India’s Information Technology Act, under which online platforms may lose legal protections if they fail to comply with government due diligence requirements.
Digital rights organisations have questioned the legal basis of the government’s action.
The Internet Freedom Foundation argued that existing laws do not give authorities the power to approve or block new platform features before they are launched.
