New Delhi: WhatsApp has asserted that username reservation relating to well-known public figure names is restricted only to their legitimate account owners, and termed as “false” any claims that people are reserving popular or well-known usernames.
The rebuttal came as part of a set of FAQs released by the Meta-owned messaging platform around its contentious username feature, which is under fire over impersonation and fraud concerns. “A few more things to keep in mind…People are making false claims about reserving popular or well-known usernames – this isn’t true, only the legitimate account owners are able to reserve well-known public-figure names,” WhatsApp said in the FAQs.
On Wednesday, the Centre issued a notice to Meta over the planned feature on WhatsApp, citing concerns that it could materially increase online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams, and impersonation attacks. It directed the platform to pause the feature until consultations on the issue are completed “to the satisfaction of the government”.
India is a key market for WhatsApp, and the go-to messaging platform has over 500 million users here.
Some prominent personalities have taken to X recently to flag concerns after they discovered that most variations of their names were already taken during the ongoing reservation phase.
Former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia put out a post on X expressing his surprise that “almost every variation” of his own name, along with his party, AAP, seemed to have already been reserved.
Others, like MobiKwik CEO Bipin Preet Singh too found that close versions of their names had already been taken during the early window for username reservation.
WhatsApp’s proposed username feature has raised a red flag among experts and users, who believe the new offering could trigger a surge in impersonation, spoofing, and financial fraud.
