India's IT Ministry cracks down on username features in messaging apps

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued notices to several messaging platforms over their use of username‑based accounts. After directing Meta to pause the rollout of WhatsApp’s username feature, the ministry sent similar notices to Telegram and Signal, asking each to explain how the feature works and what safeguards are in place against fraud, phishing, impersonation and “digital arrest” scams. Officials warned that usernames allow users to communicate without revealing phone numbers, potentially aiding cybercriminals.

In response, Zoho co‑founder Sridhar Vembu announced that the company’s Indian messaging app Arattai will disable its username‑based accounts to comply with the regulatory change. "We will be disabling the user name based account feature in Arattai, to comply with the regulatory change," Vembu said on X. The actions affect India's massive messaging market, where WhatsApp alone has over 500 million users, and signal a broader governmental push to tighten oversight of anonymity‑adjacent features on digital communication platforms.