Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia has expressed the fear of someone else using his name (impersonation) after the introduction of WhatsApp username feature reservation. He said that many types of usernames created by adding 'AAP' to his name have already been booked.
In a post on X, Manish Sisodia wrote that he tried to reserve his username, but found that many combinations related to his name were not available. He said, with the introduction of the username feature of WhatsApp, I tried to reserve my username today, I fully understand that Manish Sisodia is not a unique name, so it is quite possible that many versions of my name may have already been taken.
He further said that most of the variations created by adding AAP to his name have already been taken. He said, I was surprised to find that almost all the variations created using my name with 'AAP' have already been reserved such as Manish.Sisodia.AAP, Manish_Sisodia_AAP, ManishSisodiaAAP and many more such combinations.
With WhatsApp rolling out usernames, I tried to reserve mine today.
I completely understand that Manish Sisodia is not a unique name, so its quite possible that many versions of my name have already been taken.
But what surprised me is that almost every variation using my https://t.co/KXxXYOs2VP
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 1, 2026
The AAP leader said the case raises concerns about the possibility of impersonation and misleading users. He said, “As far as I know, there is no other Manish Sisodia associated with AAP. I request WhatsApp and Meta to look into this matter and implement a proper verification and complaint redressal system so that public identities are not misused and users are protected from being cheated by using someone else's name.
According to the report of Economic Times, Manish Sisodia said that he could not get the username even after trying hard, so now in this matter WhatsApp says that usernames named after celebrities can be reserved only for their original account owners. The company has denied the claims that people are reserving popular or famous usernames. This clarification has been given under the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) issued by the Meta-owned messaging platform regarding its controversial username feature.
The Central Government has recently sent a notice to Meta regarding a new feature of WhatsApp. The government is worried that this could lead to an increase in online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks. The government has directed the platform to stop this feature until negotiations on this issue are completed to the satisfaction of the government.
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