WhatsApp, Telegram reply to MeitY notices on upcoming username featur…

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued notices to WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal over safety risks in their proposed or existing username features, citing concerns about fraud, phishing, and impersonation. Meta and Telegram have submitted detailed responses outlining anti-fraud safeguards; the government has directed WhatsApp not to launch the feature until consultations are complete. If you're building messaging or identity verification in India, the government has just signalled that username-first contact (without phone number verification) will face hard regulatory resistance. Meta's detailed defence-in-depth response — reserved handles, first-message warnings, rate-limiting on discovery — is now the minimum bar you'll need to clear to launch anything similar.