Technology & Science
Italy Halts Meta’s WhatsApp Chatbot Block Pending Antitrust Probe
On 24 Dec 2025, Italy’s antitrust regulator (AGCM) imposed an emergency order forcing Meta to suspend a new WhatsApp Business API rule—due to take effect 15 Jan 2026—that would have barred third-party, general-purpose AI chatbots from the platform while the authority investigates abuse-of-dominance charges.
Focusing Facts
- Probe opened July 2025, widened 15 Nov 2025 after Meta’s 15 Oct 2025 API terms update; interim suspension order applies immediately to Meta Platforms Inc., its Irish subsidiaries, and Facebook Italy.
- WhatsApp controls ~90 % of Italy’s messaging market and services more than 2 billion global users, qualifying Meta as a ‘gatekeeper’ under the EU Digital Markets Act.
- The European Commission launched a parallel investigation on 5 Dec 2025 into whether the same policy violates EU competition rules across the entire European Economic Area.
Context
Regulators are replaying a familiar script: when Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows in 1998, U.S. courts compelled it to keep channels open for rival browsers; seven decades earlier, the 1956 Hush-a-Phone decision cracked AT&T’s grip on telephone attachments. Each case turned on a monopoly network using technical rules to exclude nascent competitors. WhatsApp, with near-universal penetration, has become analogous infrastructure for conversational AI, and AGCM’s move signals that European watchdogs will treat messaging APIs as public gateways, not private fiefdoms. The decision sits within a broader, decades-long drift toward treating dominant digital platforms as regulated utilities—accelerated by the EU’s 2024 Digital Markets Act—and may shape how AI services are distributed for the next century: if gatekeepers cannot foreclose rivals at the protocol layer, competition (and perhaps decentralisation) remains viable; if Meta overturns the order on appeal, AI access could consolidate under a handful of vertically-integrated giants, echoing the pre-breakup Bell System.
Perspectives
Regulation-focused tech press
e.g., TechCrunch, Court House News Service — They present the AGCM’s emergency order as a necessary step to stop Meta from abusing its gatekeeper power on WhatsApp and to protect innovation and consumers in the AI-chatbot market. Their coverage consistently foregrounds antitrust concerns while giving limited space to Meta’s operational argument, signalling a pro-regulatory stance that may exaggerate the competitive harm before any legal finding is final.
Market-oriented financial newswires
e.g., MoneyControl, RTTNews — Reports stress Meta’s defense that WhatsApp’s Business API was never meant as a chatbot distribution channel and highlight the company’s plan to appeal, casting the Italian watchdog’s order as potentially overreaching. By prioritising Meta’s quotations and the impact on the firm, these outlets can underplay consumer-welfare arguments and reflect a business-friendly lens that favours incumbents’ operational rationales.
Indian mainstream tech desks
e.g., The Times of India, NewsBytes — They frame the showdown as another example of Europe’s tougher line on Big Tech, applauding the AGCM move as part of a broad effort to rein in Meta’s dominance and safeguard competition in AI. Reliance on wire copy and the appeal of contrasting ‘strict Europe vs lax U.S.’ narratives may lead them to echo regulator talking points uncritically and overlook nuances of WhatsApp’s technical limitations.