Govt. receives WhatsApp’s reply on notice over ‘username’ feature

Meta-owned WhatsApp submitted its written response on its ‘username’ feature to the IT ministry late Thursday evening (July 9, 2026), a senior official said.

The Ministry is reviewing the company’s response, they said on Friday (July 10, 2026).

On July 1, the Centre issued a notice to Meta asking it to stop the rollout of the proposed username feature on WhatsApp. In a notice to the social media platform, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) flagged concerns that hiding phone numbers and only showing usernames may increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks.

The government had also directed the platform not to launch the feature until consultations on the issue are completed “to the satisfaction of the Government”. A written response to the government’s notice was originally due on July 4.

Subsequently, WhatsApp sought some more time to submit its response and had assured the government that it would not roll it out in India until discussions are complete.

It is unclear whether a feature on a privately owned and operated app such as WhatsApp can be vetoed by the government. In its notice, the government said that WhatsApp is an “intermediary” and a “significant social media intermediary” within the meaning of Section 2(1)(w) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with Rules 2(1)(v) and 2(1)(w) of the Information Technology Rules, 2021.

A significant social media intermediary is defined as a platform that has more than 50 lakh registered users in India; WhatsApp has an estimated user base of over 80 crore. The government said the platform is therefore squarely subject to the due-diligence and other obligations set out under the rules.

After sending a notice to WhatsApp, the IT Ministry had shot off similar notices to Telegram, Signal, and Arattai too, which have had username features that allow phone number concealment for quite some time already.

On whether Telegram and Signal responded on the notices sent to them, IT Secretary S. Krishnan on Thursday (July 9, 2026) said: “There is still a little more time, so the replies have not yet been received...we will examine this issue”.