Government of India strict on username feature, sent notice to Telegram and Signal, sought answers

Why India Issued Notice To Telegram And Signal: The central government has issued a notice to messaging platforms Telegram and Signal regarding their username feature. The government has asked both the companies to clarify what security measures they have taken to prevent misuse of such features. Officials are worried that such features may lead to an increase in incidents like online fraud, phishing and impersonation.

According to sources, this step is part of the Indian government’s increasing surveillance on digital platforms. Whereas earlier the government used to take action on an entire app when necessary, now it is also reviewing the special features of different platforms. Recently, the government had also objected to the new username feature of WhatsApp and directed to stop its rollout for the time being.

After all, what are the reasons for doing this?

The government says that through the username feature, people can contact each other without sharing their mobile numbers. Although this feature is considered useful from privacy point of view, officials believe that due to this, cyber criminals can also get an opportunity to hide their identity.

The government fears that such features can be used for cyber frauds like phishing, digital arrest, cheating people by creating fake identities and other online crimes. For this reason, Telegram and Signal have been asked what security mechanisms they have developed to deal with these risks.

Additional clarification sought from Telegram

According to sources, the government has also asked Telegram what is the need to continue the username feature on its platform. The government also wants answers that if this feature increases the risk of fraud or cases related to fake identity, then what steps is the company taking to stop them. Till the time of writing the news, there was no official response from Telegram and Signal on this matter.

There have been conflicts with tech companies before

Differences between Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government and global tech companies regarding digital rules and content moderation have come to light several times before. Instructions were also given by the government to social media platform X (Twitter) to follow the orders to remove content. Apart from this, in February, by tightening the rules, the time limit for platforms to remove content identified by the government was reduced from 36 hours to 3 hours.

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Digital rights organizations expressed objection

Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), an organization working for digital rights, has raised questions on this action of the government. The organization says that the notices sent to Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp should be withdrawn. IFF argues that encrypted messaging platforms like Signal are especially used by journalists, social workers and people associated with human rights organizations. In such a situation, the organization has described these notices as a step affecting freedom of expression and safe communication.