[European Commission Preliminary Determination: Meta Violates EU Antitrust Rules] On February 9 local time, the European Commission announced that it had issued a statement to the U.S.-based metaverse platform company Meta, preliminarily determining that its practice of prohibiting third-party AI assistants from accessing its communication app WhatsApp and interacting with users violates EU antitrust rules. The statement noted that Meta's actions could hinder competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing AI assistant market. The European Commission intends to take interim measures to prevent this policy change from causing serious and irreparable harm to the market, but this will depend on Meta's response. On October 15, 2025, Meta announced an update to a related policy, effectively banning third-party general-purpose AI assistants from being used on WhatsApp. As a result, starting January 15, 2026, the only AI assistant available on WhatsApp will be Meta's own general-purpose AI assistant, Meta AI, excluding all competing products. (CCTV News)