“If you start implementing this (SIM binding) on messaging apps, you will suddenly find most of the apps not being usable,” Anand Venkatanarayanan, Co-Founder of DeepStrat, said during MediaNama’s discussion on the ‘Impact of SIM Binding on Social Media’.
Speakers at the event explained that this outcome stems from the way SIM binding interacts with existing communication systems. By tying access to the continuous presence of a specific SIM, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directly restricts several legitimate, widespread, and often critical use cases that shape how these platforms actually function in practice.
For context, the DoT has positioned SIM binding as a fraud-prevention measure for app-based communication services. Under this directive, messaging and social media apps must function only when the SIM linked to a user’s account remains physically present in the device. The order also limits persistent access through web and desktop interfaces.
Importantly, during MediaNama’s discussion, speakers examined how this requirement would play out when applied to real-world communication platforms that millions of users rely on daily for work, safety, and coordination.
How Does SIM Binding Affect Crisis Situations and Prepaid Users?
Rohini Lakshane, technologist and researcher, said SIM binding poses serious risks for users whose phone numbers are unstable due to safety concerns or structural features of India’s telecom market.
“It’ll impact people who are in a crisis situation,” Lakshane said, pointing to “someone fleeing an abusive household or survivors of abuse or victims of stalkers and crank callers”.
In such cases, Lakshane stressed that messaging apps are not optional social tools, but essential infrastructure for safety and mobility.
“Say someone is fleeing an abusive situation, they need a phone for a number of things — being able to access help, or finding where they are, and the nearest train station or something like that,” she said.
Lakshane said SIM binding assumes continuity of phone numbers that does not exist for many users, particularly in India’s prepaid-dominated telecom ecosystem. This affects not only people in crisis, but also migrant workers and users in informal or prepaid markets: where numbers change frequently due to expiry, loss, or affordability.
As a result, she said that rigidly tying account access to SIM presence means that losing or discarding a number can immediately cut off access to messaging platforms, even when users still have their device and internet connectivity. “In that (crisis) situation, they really can’t be doing this switch over between one SIM and the other,” Lakshane said.
She added that these access disruptions do not remain isolated incidents, but create downstream strain for both users and platforms. “And that translates into more account recovery requests, more calls to support, higher fraud…
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