Zoho's Arattai disables username feature amid govt regulatory change

Zoho's Arattai is disabling its username-based account feature to comply with a regulatory change, announced co-founder Sridhar Vembu. This follows the Indian govt's notice to Meta over concerns that WhatsApp's username feature could increase fraud.

Zoho's Arattai Disables Username Feature

Zoho's instant messaging app Arattai will no longer have the username-based account feature, said Sridhar Vembu. Taking to his official X account, the Zoho co-founder and chief scientist shared that the recent change has been made to comply with the regulatory change. "We will be disabling the user name based account feature in Arattai, to comply with the regulatory change," he said.

Government Scrutiny on WhatsApp's Username Feature

This comes after the Indian government issued a notice to Meta regarding the roll-out of the feature on WhatsApp, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), as it is increasing scrutiny over the 'username' feature. On Wednesday, the Centre issued a notice to Meta over WhatsApp's planned "usernames" feature in India, warning that it could increase the risk of online fraud, phishing, and "digital arrest" scams.

The government has expressed concern regarding the 'usernames' feature, stating it may enable "impersonation and identity spoofing," and has asked Meta to furnish a detailed explanation within three days. The notice stated, "It is felt that the feature may materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks, by enabling bad actors to solicit and message victims. Furthermore, this feature may 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."

Additionally, the Indian government has asked Meta not to roll out the feature until satisfactory consultation with the government.

WhatsApp's Response

As per a WhatsApp spokesperson, the company has already announced the option for people to reserve their preferred username on the platform. "The ability to use a username is not yet live and will roll out slowly later this year. To protect against impersonation, we've held the highest-profile names -- think public figures, government entities, celebrities, verified Meta accounts -- so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners, and lookalike derivatives of known names are held as well," the statement said. (ANI)

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