&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "After action on Musk’s X, EU warns Meta to open WhatsApp to rival AI chatbots")
The European Union on Monday (Feb 09) asked Meta to provide rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust found Mark Zukurburg's tech firm in breach of the bloc's competition rules. According to the European Commission, a change in Meta's terms had "effectively" blocked third-party artificial intelligence assistance from connecting to customers using its messaging platform since January.
"Considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta's new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe," bloc's competition chief Teresa Ribera said.
The 27-nation bloc also sent a formal warning to Meta through "a statement of objections" as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation.
The US tech giant rejected the commission's finding, saying "The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene," a Meta spokesperson said.
"There are many AI options, and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission's logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots," the spokesperson said.
The European Union is actively implanting measure to put checks on the power of Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, despite strong pushback from Donald Trump and his officials in Washington.
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"We cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage," Ribera said in a statement.
The action against Meta comes after the EU launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X on January 26. The probe follows widespread controversy over the generation of non-consensual sexualized deepfake images, including those of minors, by the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok. Under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Earlier, the European Union imposed a $140 million fine on X for breaching the bloc's transparency rules under the Digital Service Act (DSA). The regulators sEuropean regulators found X guilty of three violations after a two-year probe.
