The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is working on common standards for messaging platforms operating in India, as it moves to formally oppose WhatsApp’s proposed username feature over concerns that it could fuel impersonation, online fraud and digital arrests while making law enforcement investigations more difficult, a government official familiar with the matter told HT.
“We do not support WhatsApp offering this feature. Given its huge user base in India, usernames can make impersonation, digital arrests, online fraud and even law enforcement investigations more difficult,” the official said. WhatsApp has more than three billion users around the world, and India is among its largest markets.
Common standards for messaging platforms
The push for a common standard amounts to an attempt to fill a newly discovered regulatory gap: For now, the department has turned off one platform’s feature while competitors offer the same, without a rule that explicitly permits or denies such action.
“We are also looking to bring common standards for messaging platforms so that there is legal backing for such decisions. We cannot prevent one platform from rolling out a feature while allowing others to continue offering the same,” the official said. The rules should be uniform for everyone. We will discuss this with all messaging platforms before making a final decision.”
WhatsApp and Telegram Send replies
The development comes a day after WhatsApp and Telegram submitted their responses to Meity notices, which purportedly explain the safeguards built into their username features.
An official, who requested to remain anonymous, said that the government was studying the two responses, but did not provide details about the responses.
Signal, which received a notification alongside Telegram on July 3, has not yet responded.
Sridhar Vembu, founder of Zoho, which owns messaging app Arattai, said in a July 2 post on X that the company will disable the messaging app’s username-based account feature “to comply with regulatory change.”
In India, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and Arattai operate as intermediaries under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which require them to exercise due diligence, assist law enforcement and comply with lawful government orders.
Neither law sets common rules on what features a messaging platform can or cannot offer — a gap that officials say the ministry is now looking to fill.
The ministry’s increased scrutiny has drawn opposition from digital rights advocates and some legal experts, who question whether the IT Act and its rules give Meity the authority to regulate how messaging services are designed.
