WhatsApp submits reply to govt as scrutiny of proposed username feature begins

Meta-owned WhatsApp has reportedly submitted its response to the Centre's notice regarding its proposed 'username' feature, and the government is currently examining the reply.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had issued a notice to WhatsApp last week, expressing concerns that the proposed feature could potentially increase incidents of online fraud, phishing, digital-arrest scams and impersonation attacks.

The government had also directed the messaging platform not to launch the username feature in India until consultations on the issue were completed to its satisfaction.

The proposed feature would allow users to connect and communicate on WhatsApp without having to share their mobile phone numbers, offering an additional layer of privacy.

Following the notice, WhatsApp sought additional time to submit its response to the government. The company also assured the Centre that it would not roll out the feature in India until discussions with the authorities were concluded.

Sources familiar with the matter said the IT Ministry has now received WhatsApp's response and is examining the company's submissions.

However, there has been no official statement from WhatsApp on the response submitted to the ministry yet.

Earlier this week, IT Secretary S. Krishnan had said that WhatsApp's reply to the government's notice was due on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the CII GCC Business Summit in New Delhi, Krishnan also said that similar notices had been issued to Telegram and Signal over their username features.

"We will await the formal response to the notice that we have issued, and thereafter we will take a view based on what the response is," Krishnan said on Thursday.

On whether those platforms had responded, Krishnan said there was still some time left for them to submit their replies and that the government would examine the issue after receiving their responses.

Earlier, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had instructed ministry officials to summon Meta and seek an explanation regarding the alleged presence of child sexual abuse material in advertisements on Instagram.

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