Meta is temporarily suspending the course after the EU said the new rules were ‘amount to previous access restrictions’.
Meta will allow rival AI chatbots free access to WhatsApp for a month as it navigates its way out of the EU’s antitrust crisis.
The decision comes after the European Commission said last month it would have to order Meta to restore third-party AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp under existing conditions.
Last October, the social media giant changed the rules and blocked access to third-party AI providers from reaching their customers through WhatsApp.
After this, in December, the EU opened its investigation into Meta’s policies and notified the company in January that it was violating the bloc’s antitrust laws.
Later in March, the company postponed the study of restoring access to WhatsApp to third-party AI assistants – but for a fee. However, in April, the Commission told Meta that its new rules were “equivalent to previous access restrictions”.
A spokesperson for Meta told the press that general purpose AI negotiations operating in the European Economic Area (EEA) will be given “free access to the WhatsApp business API for one month” as part of ongoing negotiations with the EU.
“This will give the Commission and Meta time to get a speedy and fair outcome to the investigation,” they added. SiliconRepublic.com reached out to Meta for additional comments.
The Commission’s investigation covers the whole of the EEA, but Italy, to avoid overlapping with the ongoing investigation of the Italian competition authorities into the company regarding the same issue.
The EU has welcomed Meta’s move to open access to WhatsApp, telling the press that it believes this creates “sufficient conditions necessary to negotiate obligations” with the company.
“The window for this discussion is short, and the process depends on Meta’s real intention to address the Commission’s problems,” he added.
Meta stands to lose up to 10pc of its annual global profits if the EU ultimately finds it has breached antitrust rules under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the EEA Agreement.
The company has faced legal problems in the past few months, when the Irish company Coimisiún na Meán launched two investigations into Meta earlier this month regarding the company’s recommendations and compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Meanwhile, in April, the EU – in a separate investigation – previously found that Instagram and Facebook violated the DSA by failing “due diligence” to identify and reduce the risks that children under 13 face when using these platforms.
In March, a landmark US lawsuit found that Meta platforms were designed to lure children. While a separate case concluded the previous day, it found that Meta platforms allowed the sexual exploitation of children.
Facebook’s parent also launched a legal battle against the UK media regulator Ofcom earlier this month over “unsubstantiated” allegations raised in the Internet Safety Act.
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