New Delhi: Meta-owned WhatsApp has submitted its response to the Centre over its proposed 'username' feature, and the government is currently examining the reply, official sources said on Friday.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had last week issued a notice to WhatsApp, flagging concerns that the proposed feature could fuel online fraud, phishing, digital-arrest scams and impersonation. The government had also directed the platform not to roll out the feature in India until consultations were completed to its satisfaction.
Under the proposed feature, users would be able to connect and communicate on WhatsApp without sharing their mobile numbers, a change aimed at offering an additional layer of privacy. Following the notice, WhatsApp had sought more time to respond and assured the Centre it would not introduce the feature in India until discussions with authorities were concluded.
People familiar with the matter said MeitY has now received WhatsApp’s response and is scrutinising the company’s submissions. However, there has been no official statement yet from WhatsApp on the contents of its reply to the ministry.
Earlier this week, IT Secretary S. Krishnan had said WhatsApp’s response to the government notice was due on Thursday. Speaking on the sidelines of the CII GCC Business Summit in New Delhi, he also said similar notices had been sent to Telegram and Signal over their existing 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 replied, he noted there was still time for them to respond and that the government would assess the issue after receiving their submissions.
Separately, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had directed ministry officials to summon Meta and seek an explanation on the alleged presence of child sexual abuse material in advertisements on Instagram.
(Inputs from IANS)