Meta faces Italy order to halt WhatsApp rules blocking AI rivals

This case is a textbook example of how AI competition is increasingly mediated not just by model quality, but by control of distribution platforms. By forcing Meta to suspend WhatsApp terms that allegedly locked out rival AI chatbots, Italy’s AGCM is testing whether classic antitrust tools can keep AI ecosystems open even when messaging apps function as de facto operating systems for conversational agents.([reuters.com](https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/italy-watchdog-orders-meta-halt-whatsapp-terms-barring-rival-ai-chatbots-2025-12-24/))

For the race to AGI, the ruling doesn’t change capabilities, but it directly affects who can reach hundreds of millions of users. If WhatsApp can’t be a walled garden for Meta AI, smaller or more open models gain a real channel to users in Europe, potentially accelerating experimentation and multi‑model competition. It also foreshadows similar fights on other gateways—iMessage, Android, WeChat—where a single player might want to bundle its own assistant by default.

Strategically, this is another signal that Europe will be the jurisdiction where platform‑level AI bundling gets challenged first. Companies chasing AGI‑level assistants now have to compete on merit and trust, not just default placement, at least in some markets. That may slow down pure winner‑take‑all dynamics and create more room for specialized or open‑source agents to survive alongside the big US and Chinese incumbents.