The Centre issued a notice to Meta last Wednesday, questioning the proposed username feature on WhatsApp, flagging concerns that it could materially increase incidents of online fraud, phishing, digital-arrest scams and impersonation attacks.
New Delhi:Meta-owned WhatsApp has submitted its reply to the government’s notice on the “username” feature and the response is being examined, sources said on Thursday.
The Centre issued a notice to Meta last Wednesday, questioning the proposed username feature on WhatsApp, flagging concerns that it could materially increase incidents of online fraud, phishing, digital-arrest scams and impersonation attacks.
The username feature essentially allows people on the messaging platform to communicate without sharing their phone numbers. The Centre had also directed the platform not to launch the feature until consultations on the issue were completed “to the satisfaction of the government”.
Subsequently, WhatsApp had sought some more time to submit its response on the “username” feature and assured the government that it would not roll it out in India until discussions were complete.
The sources told PTI that WhatsApp’s reply has indeed been received by the information technology ministry and the government is examining it.
There is no official word yet from WhatsApp on the submission made to the IT ministry on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, IT Secretary S Krishnan, speaking on the sidelines of the CII GCC Business Summit, had said WhatsApp’s reply on the username notice was due on Thursday.
On whether two other messaging platforms — Telegram and Signal — had reverted on the notices sent to them on the “username” feature, Krishnan had said: “There is still a little more time, so the replies have not yet been received…. We will examine this issue.” A team from Meta met IT ministry officials last Friday, following the notice summoning them.
In the notice, the government had asked Meta to explain why action should not be initiated under the IT Act and rules over WhatsApp’s new feature that may increase incidents of cybercrime. It had also reminded Meta that WhatsApp, as a significant social-media intermediary, is bound by due-diligence obligations under the IT Act and rules.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said last week that the ability to use a username is not yet live and that the feature will be rolled out slowly later this year.
“To protect against impersonation, we have 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,” the spokesperson had said.
Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp, the company had said and added that it has built multiple layers of defence against scams involving usernames.
“Other users need to know the exact username to message you. We will limit how many new people an account can contact, block repeated attempts to guess someone’s username key and have systems to detect and remove activity showing common impersonation and abuse patterns,” the company had said.
WhatsApp will show whether a first-time sender is a new account, a contact, a mutual group member or from another country, before users respond.
“When the feature becomes available and someone sends a message for the first time via your username, we will show you if they are a new account, if they are your contact, if you have groups in common and if they are based in a different country, so you can decide whether to respond,” WhatsApp had said.
After sending the notice to WhatsApp, the IT ministry had also shot off notices to Telegram and Signal, raising questions on their existing “username” feature and asking how the platforms are addressing concerns related to fraud and impersonation risks. While WhatsApp has 50 crore users in India, Telegram’s reach is a fraction of that.
Over the last few days, Meta and Telegram have also faced regulatory scrutiny on other issues.
While the government issued a stern notice to Meta on child-sexual-abuse material in Instagram ads on Saturday, Telegram was served a notice, directing it to crack down on the “widespread dissemination” of pirated films, OTT content and other audio-visual material through its platform.