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Türkiye's Competition Authority has launched an investigation into U.S. tech giant Meta over concerns that its integration of Meta AI into WhatsApp may disadvantage competing artificial intelligence services.
The probe focuses on whether Meta's practices restrict rival AI providers from offering services through the popular messaging platform while promoting its own AI assistant.
According to a statement published by the Turkish Competition Authority on Friday, a preliminary review found indications that third-party generative AI chatbots and assistants may have been prevented from being offered on WhatsApp as directly or seamlessly as Meta AI.
Alongside the investigation, the Competition Authority introduced interim measures requiring Meta not to make it practically or economically difficult for competing AI chatbot providers to operate through WhatsApp.
The authority gave the company one month to comply with the requirements. Failure to do so could result in an administrative fine.
Regulators will assess whether Meta's conduct hinders competition in the rapidly expanding AI assistant market by leveraging WhatsApp's large user base. If competition concerns are addressed, users may be able to access multiple AI assistants through WhatsApp rather than being limited primarily to Meta AI.
The investigation adds to a series of competition cases involving Meta in Türkiye in recent years. More recently, Turkish regulators also scrutinized the integration of Instagram and Threads, leading Meta to suspend Threads in Türkiye in 2024.
The move echoes similar scrutiny in Europe over Meta's handling of rival AI services on WhatsApp. In April, the European Commission sought to require Meta to restore access for third-party AI assistants, arguing that a revised WhatsApp policy appeared to exclude competing providers and may breach EU competition rules.
The Commission said interim measures could remain in place until the investigation is completed and later expanded the probe to Italy, where regulators had already launched a separate inquiry into the issue.
Meta pushed back, arguing that the proposal would allow major AI developers to use WhatsApp Business services without covering the associated costs, effectively shifting the burden to smaller businesses.
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