WhatsApp 'Username' Feature: Meta Says Phone Number Still Required, Cites Fraud Safeguards Amid Centre Notice

Meta has defended the rollout of usernames on WhatsApp, days after the Indian government said the new feature could lead to a rise in cybercrime and directed the company to pause its launch pending consultation. The pushback marks one of the sharpest regulatory challenges the platform has faced in India over a product feature, rather than over content moderation.

"Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp, and we've built multiple layers of defense against scams into usernames," a Meta spokesperson said, adding that the platform would limit how many new people an account can contact, block repeated attempts to guess a username, and use systems to detect and remove activity showing common patterns of impersonation or abuse. The company said usernames are not yet live and will roll out "slowly later this year."

WhatsApp had introduced the feature on Monday, calling it a major privacy upgrade meant to help users stay connected without sharing their phone numbers. The government's notice said the 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." WhatsApp has been given three days to explain the feature in detail or face action under India's information technology regulations, and has been told to hold off on the rollout until the government's concerns are addressed.

Why security is now outweighing privacy concerns

While user privacy remains a genuine factor in policymaking, the "sharp rise in cyber-enabled financial crime has undoubtedly shifted the center of gravity towards security," Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, said. Her comment reflects a broader ongoing shift in how regulators are approaching platform design choices that once sat squarely within a company's product discretion.

The scale of the underlying problem lends weight to that view. Meta's own Adversarial Threat report, published in March, found that online scam syndicates targeted users in India more frequently than in any country other than the United States. Government data shows cybercrime cases in India more than doubled between 2022 and 2024, climbing from around 1 million to nearly 2.3 million, a rise that has clearly shaped the administration's posture toward platform features that could widen the space for fraud.

India's position as WhatsApp's single largest market by user count, with more than half a billion active users, adds another layer to the scrutiny. Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, said the platform's reach combined with the new feature means misinformation could spread even faster, with scammers able to use familiar names and photos to impersonate real people. Meta has said it is addressing some of these concerns by reserving high-profile names for their legitimate owners and withholding lookalike derivatives of known names.

Governments, Bhattacharya said, increasingly expect digital platforms to share responsibility for reducing harm, though she cautioned that it remains difficult "to draw the line between legitimate regulation and measures that could discourage innovation or weaken user privacy."

Echoes of the Telegram ban

The scrutiny of WhatsApp's username feature comes just weeks after India temporarily banned Telegram to prevent exam fraud during a major national test. The government had said the platform hosted channels that falsely claimed to have leaked exam papers and demanded money from candidates and their families for access. Telegram had responded that the ban punished "150 million ordinary users of the app" for the actions of a small number of bad actors.

For WhatsApp, the outcome of the current consultation is likely to determine not only when Indian users can start using usernames, but how much scrutiny future product changes will invite before they are allowed to go live.

Inputs from CNBC