The Union government has moved to block WhatsApp’s username feature, for which the Meta-owned messaging platform is currently taking reservations. In a notice to the social media platform, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wrote that hiding phone numbers and only showing usernames “may materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks, by enabling bad actors to solicit and message victims”. 

The notice has drawn comparisons to Telegram, which was banned for the week leading up to the NEET re-test on June 21. Telegram and WhatsApp’s other widely used competitor, Signal, has featured a username feature that hides phone numbers for years. 

WhatsApp feature

The username feature on WhatsApp is not yet rolled out. Meta said in a statement that it would slowly roll out in the coming months. The feature essentially allows people to share just a username and an optional PIN with new contacts, with whom they may be hesitant to share their phone number. 

When receiving a message from a user who hides her phone number, Meta says, WhatsApp will display her country of origin, and tell users if they are already in the message receiver’s phonebook. 

MeitY said in its notice that the feature could “facilitate impersonation and identity spoofing, including impersonation of individuals, public authorities, financial institutions, and government agencies, by permitting the adoption of usernames closely resembling those of genuine persons or institutions”. A WhatsApp spokesperson said that it had already “reserved” usernames of prominent personalities to prevent their use by scammers.

Telegram feature

Telegram’s username feature works by allowing anyone to select a username and allowing anyone who has the username to message someone with just this information. “If you are not comfortable with this, we advise against setting a username on Telegram,” the messaging company says on its website. 

Just like WhatsApp, using a Telegram username does not expose users’ phone numbers unless they have enabled exposing it in the app’s settings. 

Also Read | Stretching ‘information’ to include Telegram 

Telegram has fleshed out its username settings over time. For instance, the app maintains a rolling auction for short and memorable usernames on the blockchain site Fragment. It also allows users to claim inactive usernames if a user already has the same username on two large social media platforms.

Telegram’s username feature was not a prominent part of the blocking it underwent last month. The reason was mainly that some Telegram “channels” (which are easier to run there than on WhatsApp) were able to slip in a finished exam’s question paper PDF as though it were a message sent days prior. This, the government argued, could create panic that a leak had taken place.

In both the Telegram and WhatsApp cases, the government has shown an increased willingness to veto architectural choices by the platform as part of regulating cyberspace. WhatsApp has been directed to delay the username feature until “consultations” between Meta and the government are done to the latter’s “satisfaction”. 

Messaging service WhatsApp said an Italian ​surveillance company tricked some 200 users ‌into downloading a bogus version ​of its popular app ⁠that was rigged to spy on its victims.

In a statement, the Meta Platforms-owned ‌service said the campaign was carried out by ASIGINT, ‌a subsidiary of northern Italy-based ‌SIO, ⁠whose website boasts of “high-performance, field-proven ⁠cyber intelligence solutions and technology.”

WhatsApp said the campaign was “highly targeted” and relied on deception ​to get victims ‌to install “malicious software that impersonated WhatsApp.” It did not identify the victims beyond saying they were “primarily” in ‌Italy.

SIO, which says on ​its website that it partners with “Law Enforcement Agencies, Government Organizations, ⁠Police and Intelligence Agencies,” did not immediately return a message seeking comment. ‌Italy’s interior ministry referred questions to police, who did not immediately return a message.

This is the second time in 15 months that Meta has publicly disrupted ‌spyware activity in Italy, which is ​still dealing with the fallout from the exposure in early ⁠2025 of a surveillance operation carried out ⁠using spyware from the U.S.-owned firm Paragon. Italy and Paragon ‌have since parted ways.