India orders WhatsApp to halt username feature over anonymity concerns

India has asked WhatsApp to justify the implementation of a planned feature covering usernames and to freeze the roll-out in its biggest market, escalating a crackdown on messaging anonymity that began with Telegram, according to a government letter.

The move comes as authorities in India grapple with a spike in cybercrime, with scammers exploiting low digital safety awareness among millions of internet users.

Earlier this week, Meta’s WhatsApp said ‌it had begun a phased global roll-out, including in India, of the feature, which lets users reserve a unique username and eventually message others without sharing their phone numbers.

The intervention is an escalation of India’s policing of global tech platforms, coming weeks after it temporarily blocked Telegram and following years of run-ins with Elon Musk’s X over content-takedown orders.

The Telegram block was driven partly by the same anonymity concerns that the government has now raised with WhatsApp.

Wednesday’s letter gave WhatsApp three ⁠days to respond and barred the roll-out until its consultations with the government concluded.