WhatsApp responds to Centre’s notice, says "ability to use a username is not yet live, will roll out slowly later this year"

Meta-owned WhatsApp has responded to the Centre’s notice over its proposed username feature, clarifying that the feature has not yet gone live and will be introduced slowly later this year. The company also said it has put several safeguards in place to reduce the risk of impersonation and misuse.

“The ability to use a username is not yet live and will roll out slowly later this year,” reports citing a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

Responding to concerns around fake identities, “To protect against impersonation, we’ve held the highest-profile names, think public figures, government entities, celebrities, verified Meta accounts, so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners and lookalike derivatives of known names are held as well.”

WhatsApp said a phone number will continue to be mandatory for creating an account, even after usernames are introduced. According to the company, users will need to know a person’s exact username before they can start a conversation. It also said it has “limits on how many new people someone can message,” blocks repeated attempts to guess usernames, and uses automated systems to detect and remove impersonation and other forms of abuse. Before responding to a message from someone for the first time, users will also see contextual information such as whether the sender is a new account, an existing contact, shares a mutual group or is messaging from another country.

The company’s response comes after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) directed WhatsApp to put the rollout of the feature on hold in India until discussions with the government are completed.

In its notice, the ministry said the proposed feature “may materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks, by enabling bad actors to solicit and message victims.” It also expressed concern that usernames “may facilitate identity spoofing by permitting the creation of usernames that resemble the names of trusted individuals, public authorities, financial institutions or government agencies.”

MeitY has sought an explanation from the company within three days on why action under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the rules framed under it should not be initiated. The ministry has also asked WhatsApp to submit detailed documents explaining how the feature will operate, the verification mechanisms it intends to use, the safeguards against impersonation, and the measures in place to prevent fraud, abuse and misuse.

The notice further states that WhatsApp is “hereby directed not to roll out the said feature in India until consultations on the matter are completed to the satisfaction of the Government.”