The implication is that a phone number is still required, you just no longer have to share that with the people you communicate with.
Their blog post says explicitly that phone number is still required for sign-up and that usernames are purely meant as an avenue to message new people without sharing your phone number. Your username isn't even visible to anyone but you and you can change it whenever you want.
That does help. While It adds an extra step to the reporting process (having the authorities identify the human behind the tag), it does at least nearly guarantee someone can figure out who is behind it.
The implication is that a phone number is still required, you just no longer have to share that with the people you communicate with.
Their blog post says explicitly that phone number is still required for sign-up and that usernames are purely meant as an avenue to message new people without sharing your phone number. Your username isn't even visible to anyone but you and you can change it whenever you want.
That does help. While It adds an extra step to the reporting process (having the authorities identify the human behind the tag), it does at least nearly guarantee someone can figure out who is behind it.