New Delhi: The Division of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued a directive requiring messaging platforms, together with WhatsApp, to log customers out each six hours. The directive final week mandated that the person’s subscriber identification module (SIM) used at registration have to be sure to the companies of web-based platforms corresponding to WhatsApp, Telegram, Sign, Arattai, Snapchat, Sharechat, and others.
Because the service should stay tied to the SIM within the cellphone, WhatsApp Net and related internet companions are pressured to log customers out each six hours as soon as the rule is applied.
Inside 90 days, customers will not have the ability to entry these apps until the unique SIM is current within the machine, the DoT round confirmed. Every web-based platform should submit a compliance report inside 4 months.
The change will disrupt the seamless multi‑machine expertise many gained by maintaining WhatsApp Net working all through the workday. The federal government felt the transfer was obligatory to forestall misuse of messaging apps as cyber fraudsters exploited WhatsApp with out having the SIM current, usually from outdoors India.
Making SIM binding obligatory supplies a option to hint exercise to a bodily subscriber. The principles flowed from the Telecommunication Cybersecurity Modification Guidelines, 2025, which launched the concept of a Telecommunication Identifier Consumer Entity.
The principles stream from the Telecommunication Cybersecurity Modification Guidelines, 2025, which launched the Telecommunication Identifier Consumer Entity requirement. Beneath the revised guidelines, platforms will want entry to the Worldwide Cell Subscriber Identification (IMSI) saved on the SIM, requiring international companies corresponding to WhatsApp to re-engineer components of their system for Indian customers.
Tech firms stated that fixed SIM checks and 6‑hour logouts will erode person privateness, break multi‑machine comfort, and complicate entry when touring, whereas telecom operators backed the transfer.