India's government has asked Meta to halt the rollout of WhatsApp's new username feature, citing concerns about fraud and impersonation. The feature, designed to enhance privacy by allowing users to connect without sharing phone numbers, could make scams harder to detect. Experts weigh the trade-offs between privacy, safety, and regulation, noting that India's intervention may set a precedent for other regions. The move comes amid rising cyber fraud in India, with losses reaching $2.3 billion in 2025, and concerns about namespace squatting and impersonation of public figures.
India has asked Meta to halt the rollout of WhatsApp usernames over fraud and impersonation concerns. Experts weigh the trade-offs between privacy, safety and regulation.
This illustration photograph shows the new upcoming Username feature on instant messaging software WhatsApp, displayed on a smartphone with the backdrop of India’s national flag. Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. BENGALURU: WhatsApp’s new username feature is designed to give users more privacy. But in India, regulators worry it could also make scams harder to spot.
The company has until Jul 9 to respond, according to local media reports. The feature lets WhatsApp users reserve a username that will eventually allow them to connect with others without sharing their phone number. Username reservations have begun rolling out globally ahead of the feature’s wider launch later this year.
Meta told CNA it has built safeguards against fraud and impersonation, including reserving usernames for public figures, government entities and verified Meta accounts, limiting new contacts, blocking username-guessing attempts and using automated systems to detect abusive or impersonating accounts. The move makes India the first known government to formally challenge the feature, arguing it could make existing scams more convincing.
Tanveer Hasan, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society , an Indian digital policy think tank, told CNA that the Indian government's concerns are justified because of WhatsApp's reach. World Population Review estimates that India had about 853.8 million WhatsApp users in 2026, making India WhatsApp's largest market.
“The state is right in asking WhatsApp or any other firm to put the safety and dignity of its citizens over ease of business,” Hasan said. Experts told CNA that India's intervention will be closely watched by technology companies, digital rights groups and policymakers across the region. They said the questions India is raising about the feature are likely to resonate beyond its borders.
India's intervention comes against the backdrop of a sharp rise in cyber fraud, much of it driven by impersonation scams. Newspapers with front page advertisements of Facebook's WhatsApp application are seen at a newspaper stall in Mumbai on January 13, 2021. According to data from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, Indians lost 224.95 billion rupees to cyber fraud in 2025, with complaints rising by about 24 per cent year on year to 2.4 million.
More than three-quarters of these cyber-fraud losses came from investment scams, while fraudsters impersonating law enforcement and government authorities in so-called digital arrest scams to coerce victims into transferring money are the second-largest contributor.
“It could add more friction to the law enforcement process,” Andrei Skorobogatov, director of communications at the Global Anti-Scam Alliance told CNA. Although authorities can obtain the phone number linked to a username through legal requests, investigators would first need WhatsApp to identify the account, adding another step to an already time-sensitive process, he explained.
Unlike phone numbers, usernames can resemble trusted institutions or public figures, potentially making fraudulent messages appear more legitimate at first glance, said Vikas Kundu, threat intelligence researcher at CloudSEK, a digital risk monitoring platform.
“Right now, a suspicious phone number is often the victim's first tripwire ,” Kundu told CNA. “Hiding that number during the first interaction removes one of the easiest ways users currently verify who is contacting them. ” Kundu said usernames do not create new scam techniques, but could make existing approaches more persuasive.
He also pointed to what cybersecurity researchers call “namespace squatting”, where fraudsters register usernames resembling banks, government agencies or prominent individuals before legitimate entities can claim them. Concerns over namespace squatting have already surfaced during WhatsApp's early reservation phase. Manish Sisodia, a senior leader of India's opposition Aam Aadmi Party and former deputy chief minister of Delhi, said multiple username combinations using his name and"AAP" had already been reserved.
In a post on X, he urged Meta to introduce verification and grievance mechanisms to prevent misuse of public identities and protect users from impersonation. A TechCrunch report also found that usernames such as ‘rbi_verify’, which resembles a public institution like India’s central bank - the Reserve Bank of India - could still be reserved. Even usernames resembling prominent politicians, actors and businessmen in India were available to reserve, according to the report.
A preliminary check by CNA found that usernames such as ‘IndianCrimeOffice, ‘IndianOfficerCyberCriminal’ and ‘RBI_Inspector’ were available to reserve. While these are not the exact official names of Indian law enforcement or regulatory authorities, they could potentially be used to deceive unsuspecting users.
"So the fairest framing is that researchers anticipated the threat, India's fraud data made it urgent and the regulator simply intervened earlier in the product lifecycle than most of its peer countries would," said Kundu. Other experts, however, argue the Indian government's response risks going too far. Independent tech policy researcher Prateek Waghre said usernames also solve a genuine privacy problem by allowing people to communicate without exposing their phone numbers.
Rather than preventing new features from launching, he said regulators should focus on improving digital literacy, strengthening cybercrime response and encouraging platforms to build effective safeguards. Tourists walk past a display of messaging app WhatsApp in Mumbai on August 25, 2023. Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, questioned whether the government should intervene in product design without a clear legal basis.
He told CNA that WhatsApp's implementation already includes several protections against impersonation, including reserved usernames, contextual warnings for first-time contacts and the absence of a public username search.
“The idea that the Indian government can try to stop the rollout of a product without having a legal basis reflects poorly on our government,” Pahwa told CNA. “It creates regulatory uncertainty for companies in an important market like India that is seeking foreign investment. ” WhatsApp maintains that the username feature is designed to enhance user privacy by allowing people to connect without revealing their phone numbers.
Unlike platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp said users will not be able to search for usernames through a public directory. To start a conversation, someone would need to know the person’s exact username and, if enabled, their username key - an optional secret code that users can choose to share only with trusted contacts. CIS’ Hasan said these privacy features should not make it easier for bad actors to exploit anonymity.
However, he pointed out that WhatsApp's username key should be a default setting, rather than optional. Skorobogatov of GASA said Meta would need to continuously monitor how criminals adapt to the feature after launch and work closely with law enforcement to respond quickly if abuse patterns emerge. So far, India appears to be the only government that has formally asked WhatsApp to pause its username rollout over impersonation and fraud concerns. WhatsApp's new Username feature being rolled out.
“What is certain to happen is that this official action will have an impact that will be picked up by all stakeholders like Meta ESEAP or Google Asia, non-government organisations, legal scholars, individual researchers and digital rights organisations,” said Hasan. CloudSEK’s Kundu said that organised cybercrime syndicates based in countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand are increasingly targeting victims across South and Southeast Asia through messaging platforms. in a global sting on Southeast Asian scam centres in March this year, according to a South China Morning Post report.
In view of this, Kundu pointed out that India's move is notable not because it identified a previously unknown threat, but because it chose to intervene before the feature was launched. Experts said the real test will not be whether other countries adopt India’s regulatory approach, but whether platforms can quickly respond as criminals adapt to new features.
“There is a chance that existing scam tactics will be slightly amplified. WhatsApp says it is going to put in place a number of preventative mechanisms and will be proactively monitoring how this works and putting in additional measures if they don't work, which is great to see,” said Skorobogatov.
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