India, July 2 -- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday issued a notice to Meta over the proposed rollout of WhatsApp's usernames feature in India, directing the company to submit a detailed explanation of the feature within three days. The notice said the ministry had taken note of public announcements by WhatsApp that it had begun a phased global rollout, including in India, of the feature.

"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," read the notice.

In the notice addressed to the Chief Compliance Officer, WhatsApp LEC (Meta), India Operations, th...