India has instructed WhatsApp to pause the introduction of a username system and to explain the rationale for the feature, according to a government letter. The directive, issued in a July 1 letter, temporarily prohibits the rollout in the country and gave WhatsApp three days to respond while the government conducts consultations.
The planned capability would allow users to reserve unique usernames and, over time, message others without revealing their phone numbers. WhatsApp recently said it had started a phased global rollout of the feature, including India, but a company spokesperson has since stated the usernames function is not yet live in the market and will be rolled out slowly later this year. The spokesperson also emphasized that account registration would still require a phone number and that someone must know an exact username in order to message another user.
The government letter cited concerns that hiding phone numbers could materially increase online fraud, phishing, and impersonation attacks by making it easier for malicious actors to contact victims without revealing their phone numbers. Similar concerns were raised earlier in the government's actions against another messaging app, which faced a temporary block amid related anonymity issues.
WhatsApp told regulators it has built "multiple layers of defense against scams" into the username feature. Those protections include limits on how many new people an account can contact and blocks on repeated attempts to guess a user’s username, the company said.
The July 1 communication referenced India’s information technology law, under which platforms can lose legal protections from liability for user content if they do not comply with government-mandated due-diligence rules. The letter said the usernames feature could undermine those safeguards by enabling actors to conceal their phone numbers while contacting potential victims.
The directive to WhatsApp marks a continuation of intensified government scrutiny of global technology platforms. The intervention follows a recent temporary block of another messaging service and builds on prior disputes with other social platforms over content takedowns and regulatory compliance. The move also comes shortly after Meta appointed Kunal Shah, founder of CRED, as WhatsApp’s global head - a hire observers noted as reflecting India’s strategic importance to the app’s payments and business-messaging ambitions.
Digital rights groups have criticized the government’s request as lacking a clear legal basis. One group said there is no explicit provision that allows authorities to approve or block a feature prior to its public release, and described the directive as an attempt to decide "what a company may build and ship."
India is WhatsApp’s largest market, with more than 500 million users, a scale that raises the stakes for any regulatory standoff. The government’s instruction forces WhatsApp and its parent company to balance compliance with regulatory demands against broader concerns about expanding state control over digital platforms.
Separately, the July communication reiterated the government’s view that tools which obscure phone numbers can complicate efforts to identify and hold perpetrators of cyber fraud to account. A government report in June similarly flagged the role of number-hiding tools in enabling cyber fraud and making user identification more difficult. In a related legal development, the other messaging service that faced a temporary ban recently lost a court challenge to that restriction.
For now, WhatsApp has maintained that account registration will continue to require a phone number and that the username feature will include anti-abuse mechanisms. The company has been asked to provide a formal response to the government within the time specified in the July 1 letter while the rollout in India remains paused pending the outcome of consultations.
Summary
India has ordered a halt to WhatsApp’s username rollout in the country and requested a formal justification, citing risks of increased fraud and impersonation. WhatsApp says the feature is not yet live and includes anti-abuse protections, but the government has barred rollout pending review under IT law.