India Extends WhatsApp's Deadline on Usernames Amid Scam Concerns

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has extended its deadline for Meta to respond to concerns over WhatsApp's upcoming username feature, moving the cutoff from July 6 to July 9. The rollout remains on hold in the country in the meantime.

Meta announced on June 29 that WhatsApp users would soon be able to reserve a unique username, allowing people to message each other without sharing a phone number. Telegram, Signal, and Discord already offer similar systems, and Meta has framed the change as a straightforward privacy upgrade.

Indian regulators were not convinced. Within 48 hours of the announcement, MeitY ordered WhatsApp to pause the feature in the country and explain in writing how it would prevent abuse. The ministry's central concern is "digital arrest" fraud, in which scammers pose as police officers, judges, or customs officials to pressure victims into transferring money. Officials argue that phone numbers currently give investigators at least a starting point for tracing suspects, and that usernames would remove it. A scammer registering from outside India, they note, could otherwise appear indistinguishable from a legitimate local account.

Meta has pointed to several safeguards: usernames tied to public figures and government bodies are reserved in advance, there is no public directory of usernames, and a person cannot be found unless someone already knows their exact handle. Whether that satisfies regulators will become clear after the new July 9 deadline.

The scrutiny extends beyond WhatsApp. Telegram and Signal have reportedly received similar notices from Indian authorities, suggesting the case could set a precedent for how anonymity features are regulated across messaging apps operating in the country.

WhatsApp counts roughly 500 million users in India, its largest market. How the dispute is resolved will influence not just the feature's rollout there, but the wider debate over where privacy protections end and fraud risk begins.