WhatsApp’s username revamp faces India test over fraud risks

[NEW DELHI] India asked Meta Platforms to delay, for now, the roll-out of a new feature that lets users pick their own WhatsApp handles on fears it could fuel online fraud, marking the country’s latest pushback against US internet companies.

WhatsApp this week began allowing customers to reserve a unique username, with plans for the feature to go operational later this year.

The idea is to eventually allow the platform’s three billion members to communicate without exchanging numbers, in an effort aimed at boosting user privacy, said Meta.

But the move has attracted the scrutiny of the government in India, WhatsApp’s biggest market with more than 600 million users.

The tech ministry sent a notice to Meta, an excerpt reviewed by Bloomberg News saying it believes usernames may potentially increase incidents of online fraud, phishing, scams and impersonation of individuals and state agencies.

The agency directed the US company to delay its roll-out until further consultation, the notice added.

Disruption of global roll-out

The scrutiny from New Delhi risks disrupting the global roll-out of a feature Meta has touted as a means to give its users more control over who can view their phone numbers.

The feature was announced just days after the Menlo Park, California-headquartered company appointed Indian entrepreneur Kunal Shah as WhatsApp’s new chief, in a clear signal that India is its key growth driver.

Over the years, New Delhi has become increasingly assertive with US internet companies through stricter content regulations, violations of which can potentially lead to prison terms for executives.

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The government backlash emerged years after WhatsApp was accused of becoming a tool for disinformation that led to mob lynchings, and Indian officials at one point threatened to disallow encryption on the messaging app. 

Late on Wednesday (Jul 1), Meta said it has built several layers of defences against scams into WhatsApp’s username feature, and that it will allow high-profile names to be claimed only by legitimate owners, as part of an effort to counter impersonation.

That statement came after local media reported that the government was concerned about the misuse of usernames.

A WhatsApp spokesperson said: “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.”

Some in India are worried about the government encroaching on companies and the public, and argued that the tech ministry’s move has no legal basis. 

New Delhi-based advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), well-known for opposing government Internet controls, said that the tech ministry is not legally empowered to ban a product feature before its release. 

The ministry’s move “is an attempt by the executive to decide what a company may build and ship, which no statute permits”, the IFF said in a post on X. “The notice treats the launch of a lawful feature as a wrong the company must justify.” 

Several apps, including Signal and Telegram, already allow usernames, though phone numbers are required for registration.

Prasanth Sugathan, legal director at Software Freedom Law Center, India, said local laws cannot be used to stop one app from providing a privacy feature its rivals also offer.

“This is a slippery slope towards executive pre-censorship of product design without any legal basis,” he said. BLOOMBERG