After Italy, WhatsApp excludes Brazil from rival chatbot ban

São Paulo: WhatsApp is allowing chatbots for users in Brazil. This comes after Brazil’s competition regulator asked Meta to stop its new policy. The policy aimed to ban third-party chatbots on the app through its business API. Meta had set a grace period to stop these chatbots starting from January 15, but Brazilian users won’t be affected.

Meta told developers not to worry about notifying users in Brazil about changes. The notice from Meta states that the rule about stopping user responses does not apply to Brazilian phone numbers. This means chatbot services can continue as usual for them.

The new policy affects chatbots like ChatGPT and Grok but does not stop businesses from using bots for customer service. Brazil’s competition agency said it would look into whether Meta’s rules harm competitors and support its own services too much.

Meta had already given a similar break to Italy after that country raised concerns. The EU is also looking into these new rules. The company says that AI chatbots are putting a heavy load on their systems. A WhatsApp spokesperson claimed that the need for change is due to how their business API is used. They believe people should use app stores or partnerships for AI chatbots, not their platform.