WhatsApp is permitting AI suppliers to proceed providing their chatbots to customers with Brazilian telephone numbers, days after the nation’s competitors regulator ordered the corporate to droop its new coverage that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from being supplied on the app by way of its enterprise API.
Beneath the brand new coverage, the corporate is offering a 90-day grace interval beginning January 15 to builders and AI suppliers, mandating them to stop responding to person queries on the chat app, and notify customers that their chatbots gained’t work on WhatsApp.
Now, Meta advised builders that they don’t need to notify customers with Brazilian telephone numbers (with code +55) of any modifications or stop providing their companies, per a discover to AI suppliers seen by TechCrunch.
“The requirement to stop responding to person queries and implement pre-approved auto-reply language (talked about under) earlier than January 15, 2026, not applies when messaging folks with a Brazil nation code (+55),” the discover reads.
WhatsApp didn’t instantly reply to a question searching for to verify the choice.
The coverage, which goes into effect from today, impacts general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT and Grok on the platform. Notably, the coverage doesn’t cease companies from offering customer support by way of bots inside WhatsApp to their clients.
In its discover, Brazil’s competitors company stated it might examine if Meta’s phrases are exclusionary to opponents and unduly favor Meta AI, the corporate’s chatbot that’s supplied on WhatsApp.
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Meta has beforehand offered an identical exemption to customers in Italy after the country’s competition agency took issue with the policy in December. Individually, the EU has additionally opened an antitrust investigation into the new rules.
The corporate has constantly maintained that AI chatbots are straining its techniques that have been designed for various makes use of of its enterprise API. Meta has even stated prior to now that individuals who wish to use completely different chatbots can accomplish that exterior WhatsApp.
“These claims are essentially flawed,” a WhatsApp spokesperson stated in response to CADE’s probe on Tuesday. “The emergence of AI chatbots on our Enterprise API put a pressure on our techniques that they weren’t designed to help. This logic assumes WhatsApp is one way or the other a de facto app retailer. The path to marketplace for AI firms is the app shops themselves, their web sites and trade partnerships; not the WhatsApp Enterprise Platform.”
