WhatsApp usernames are already raising impersonation red flags
WhatsApp this week started rolling out username reservations ahead of the broader launch planned later this year. The feature — which lets people find and message each other by handle instead of phone number — is already raising impersonation concerns, drawing scrutiny from security experts and regulators in India, the app’s largest market, with more than 500 million users.
The rollout marks a shift in how people identify one another on WhatsApp. Instead of relying on phone numbers as the primary identifier, users will increasingly interact through platform-managed usernames, a change that Meta says improves privacy but that critics argue could create new opportunities for impersonation.
In early testing, TechCrunch found usernames resembling prominent politicians, celebrities, business figures, and public institutions — including “indiamodi”, “shahrukh.actor”, “teamamitabh”, “ambanijio”, and “rbi_verify” — were still available to reserve. These reference Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan,...
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