EU Opens Antitrust Probe Into Meta’s New AI Policy For WhatsApp – Decrypt

In brief The European Commission launched an antitrust investigation into Meta’s policy which blocks AI providers from using WhatsApp’s business tools to offer chatbots when AI is the primary service. Meta’s policy change allows its own Meta AI to remain accessible on WhatsApp while potentially shutting out competitors from reaching customers through the messaging platform. The probe covers the entire European Economic Area except Italy, investigating whether the company violated competition rules prohibiting abuse of dominant market positions. Europe’s competition regulator has opened a formal investigation into tech giant Meta over policy changes that allow the company’s own AI chatbot to operate on WhatsApp while blocking rivals from doing the same. The European Commission announced Thursday it’s examining whether Meta violated antitrust rules by effectively reserving WhatsApp’s AI chatbot access for itself.  The action targets updated business terms WhatsApp rolled out in late October, which ban third-party AI companies from distributing chatbots through the messaging app when AI is their core offering. Under the updated WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, AI providers are “strictly prohibited” from using the business API when AI technologies are “the primary (rather than incidental or ancillary) functionality being made available for use.”  “The Commission is concerned
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