India’s government has directed WhatsApp to suspend plans to roll out a new feature that would allow users to chat via unique usernames rather than phone numbers, warning that the change could open the door to increased fraud and phishing scams.
The instruction, contained in a formal notice from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, was issued on Wednesday. It queries WhatsApp on why it should not face action under Indian law for introducing a feature officials say “may increase cybercrimes.”
WhatsApp, which is owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, is yet to launch the feature globally but had announced plans to gradually introduce it to its three billion users worldwide over the coming months. India remains WhatsApp’s largest market, boasting over 850 million users.
Responding to the development, WhatsApp confirmed the feature has not gone live and stressed that several protective measures have already been built into it. These include reserving usernames linked to high-profile individuals and organisations, as well as systems designed to flag impersonation attempts and fraudulent activity.
According to the Indian ministry, the concern is that scammers could exploit the feature to reach out to unsuspecting victims without ever revealing a phone number — a detail authorities say is often used to trace or block fraudsters. The notice further cautioned that the feature could enable identity theft, with bad actors creating usernames that closely mimic those of banks, government bodies, or public figures.
Officials have asked WhatsApp to hold off on launching the feature until “consultation on this point is achieved to the satisfaction of the government,” citing India’s Information Technology Act and related digital identity regulations.
This latest move fits into a broader pattern of Indian authorities tightening their grip on how foreign tech giants operate within the country. Cybercrime remains a pressing issue in India — official figures show close to 102,000 cases were recorded in 2024 alone, marking an 18% rise from the year before, with online fraud accounting for nearly three-quarters of those cases.
A Meta spokesperson clarified that the rollout would happen in stages later in the year, noting that names belonging to public figures, celebrities, verified accounts, and government entities — along with close lookalikes — have already been set aside to prevent misuse.
The company also pointed to additional safeguards: users would still need to register with a phone number regardless of the new feature, strangers would need to know an exact username before making contact, limits would be placed on how many new users an account could reach out to, and repeated attempts to guess someone’s username would be blocked. WhatsApp added that users will also get contextual information about first-time contacts — such as whether the sender is a new account, shares mutual groups, or is messaging from a different country — to help them make informed decisions.
Not everyone is convinced the government is on solid legal footing, however. The Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, has pushed back against the notice, arguing it lacks proper legal grounding. The organisation contends that Indian law does not grant the ministry authority to demand prior approval before a company rolls out a product feature, describing the move as regulatory overreach.
This isn’t the first clash between Indian regulators and messaging platforms this year. In February, the government slashed the window for removing flagged unlawful content from 36 hours down to just three.
Telegram, too, felt the heat last month when it was briefly banned during the re-sitting of a major national medical entrance exam — authorities argued that encrypted, phone-number-free features on such platforms complicate law enforcement efforts, a stance the platform contested in court without success.