Sources said Meta will provide a detailed explanation sought by India regarding the WhatsApp username feature, after officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology met the Meta team on Friday.
Ministry officials made them aware of the government’s concerns regarding this feature. Since the timeline for providing the detailed explanation for the Usernames feature is 3 days, they will give their final response as per the timeline, officials told HT.
Sources said that the meeting was held after the government’s notification regarding the proposed rollout of the ‘Usernames’ feature on WhatsApp in India.
Earlier this week, the Union government issued a notice to Meta directing it to provide a detailed explanation on the proposed ‘Usernames’ feature within three days.
According to sources, the government has also directed Meta not to roll out the feature in India until consultations on the issue are completed.
This move comes after privacy and safety concerns were raised about this feature, especially regarding the possibility of impersonation and misuse.
According to Meta, a username is an optional and unique identifier that users can choose for their WhatsApp account. Starting with the “@” symbol, others can use the username to message or call a user without revealing the person’s phone number.
Meta said the username is different from the display name that appears on a user’s profile. Although display names don’t have to be unique, user names are unique for each account.
The company also stated that people who do not have a user’s phone number saved will see the username by default when interacting through direct messages, calls, or group chats. Certain usernames will be reserved for companies, governments, and public figures and cannot be claimed by others.
