After WhatsApp, India has tightened the screws on Telegram, Signal amid rising cyber fraud cases

India is tightening the screws on global messaging platforms as it tries to police big tech over concerns of user privacy and cyber fraud.

After asking Meta-owned WhatsApp to pause the rollout of its new ‘usernames’ feature, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has sent similar notices to Telegram and Signal, seeking details on whether they offer comparable functionality and how it could affect user safety, PTI reports, citing sources.

The move signals a broader shift in New Delhi’s approach to big tech. Rather than regulating platforms, the government is increasingly seeking to shape product design before rollout — particularly where privacy features could complicate law enforcement or make digital fraud harder to trace.

The concern is scale: WhatsApp and Telegram serve hundreds of mns of Indians, making even small product changes potentially significant from a cybersecurity perspective.

In damage control mode: WhatsApp said that its ‘usernames’ feature is optional and aims to allow users to connect without sharing their phone numbers, mirroring functionality already available on Telegram and Signal.

The concerns come as India grapples with an explosion in online financial fraud. India saw 265.5 mn cyber threats across more than 8 mn endpoints between 2024 October and 2025 September — averaging 505 threats every minute, according to a Seqrite report. Besides, Indians lost at least INR 225 bn (USD 2.6 bn) to cyber fraud in 2025.

For global technology companies, the message is becoming clearer: privacy-enhancing features may improve user experience, but in India they will increasingly face a state check before they reach consumers.