Social media platforms will have to implement SIM binding from January 1, 2027 in India. The SIM binding rules were already notified by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), but since then, it has seen some change and updates. The tech companies have to follow orders from the telecom department and implement SIM binding from January 1, 2027, and this will primarily affect platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and more. These platforms require SIM of the user to authenticate the account and use in the primary device. Once the primary device is activated, users can also log in to other platforms such as web, companion devices and more with the same account as long as the primary device has the account active.

This creates some chances for the fraudsters to gain access to the account of the users other devices and use them for scam. That is why, the government of India wants SIM binding to be implemented. The basic idea is, if the secondary device does not have the SIM, WhatsApp should not keep working forever. There should be a time where the platform must log-out the account from the secondary device automatically, and prompt the user to re-login for a safer use.

However, this did not bode well for many users, who have WhatsApp installed in multiple devices and desktops. This is because, in an earlier proposal, the government of India had suggested that the tech companies should log-out the user from the secondary device every six hours. This sounds safe, but it sounds tedious for the user to keep logging in everytime they want to use the account in their secondary device, which could be their work laptop.

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