The government of India has widened its probe on the username feature offered by messaging apps Telegram and Signal after privacy fears sparked from a recent WhatsApp announcement. Earlier this week, the Meta-owned messaging app asked its users to reserve usernames on its platform, which in the coming months, would eliminate the need for people to share their numbers to connect on the app.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued notices to Telegram and Signal, seeking explanations on how these apps address risks of impersonation and frauds as anybody could claim any username, especially ones mimicking companies, financial advisors, or even government agencies.
Telegram and Signal, both have had the usernames feature since years now. While Telegram enabled the feature way back in 2014, Signal pivoted from its “phone-number-only requirement” to usernames in 2024.
All this while, social networking giants including Meta have been pitching the ability to connect without phone numbers as a win for user privacy. The narrative, however, changed over the last 72 hours — soon after WhatsApp said it would be bringing the feature to its three billon users.
Many from India have expressed concerns that impersonation scams could rise via WhatsApp as bad actors could easily register lookalike handles of prominent individuals, government agencies, and businesses.
Following the outcry, India’s IT Ministry issued a notice to WhatsApp seeking an explanation on why this username feature should not be met with a legal strike. The encrypted messaging app has been granted three days to submit an official response to the IT ministry — a timeline that winds up on June 4th.
WhatsApp has maintained that the username feature will be optional and that the platform will ensure that high-value usernames would be reserved for associated individuals only.
As of now, neither Signal nor Telegram have responded to India’s action.
For Telegram, this could be the second tussle with the Indian government within the last few weeks. Last month, India imposed a temporary ban on Telegram to prevent the circulation of exam-related misinformation before the national medical entrance exam, NEET. Since Telegram does not maintain a grievance team in India, the government feared its exploitation by exam fraud syndicate could become untraceable.
