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EU intends to force Meta to open WhatsApp to competing AI assistants

Brussels, 09 February (QNA) - The European Commission announced today its intention to impose temporary measures on Meta, the owner of the instant messaging app WhatsApp, in order to force it to modify its policy to allow third-party AI assistants to access WhatsApp and interact with its users.

The Commission considers that Meta has violated EU competition rules by preventing third-party AI assistants from accessing WhatsApp and interacting with its users, which hinders competitors from entering the fast-growing AI assistant market or limits their development there.

The European executive body stated in a statement that it intends to 'impose temporary measures to prevent this policy change from causing serious and irreparable harm to the market'.

Meta offers a general AI assistant called Meta AI, but the company announced last October an update to the terms of use for WhatsApp Business, which 'effectively excludes third-party general AI assistants from the app'.

The Commission explained that as a result, since last January 15, the only AI assistant available on WhatsApp is Meta's own tool (Meta AI), noting that the messaging app WhatsApp constitutes 'an important access point enabling general AI assistants to reach consumers'.

Since Meta's update, companies can no longer use independently developed AI services within the app.

These services were previously used on WhatsApp mainly in the form of chatbots to respond to user inquiries.

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