Meta, as one of the designated gatekeepers, will have to comply with the Digital Markets Act. The social media giant has immediately started implementing the legislation on WhatsApp.
Last week, the European Commission announced which companies meet the term “gatekeeper” and thus must comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Violations of the legislation will be fined from March 2024 on.
Also read: Google parent, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft pointed out as ‘gatekeepers’
WhatsApp users send with Telegram users
Meta was designated along with five other companies. As a result, changes are coming to several Meta services, including WhatsApp. For this communication platform, the tech giant is currently already testing legislation. It involves testing a third-party chat option that lets WhatsApp users send with users of competing communication platforms such as Telegram and Signal.
The test was first discovered by WABetaInfo, they reported signs of support for third-party chat applications were found in Android version 2.23.19.8. The feature is still under development and thus not yet accessible to a (test) public.
A problem for encryption technology
Under the DMA, applications from big tech companies must provide interoperability with smaller, competing applications. This will curb Big Tech’s power and give competing brands a fairer chance.
However, the rules can pose a security threat for chat applications such as WhatsApp. End-to-end encryption is used to transfer messages securely from sender to receiver without giving third parties a chance to read the message. Security experts previously warned it would be extremely difficult or even impossible to use this technology when messages are sent to a third-party application.
Support for third-party chat applications will also be required for Messenger, also part of Meta. Apple’s iMessage remains out of reach of the DMA (for now). The European Commission gives itself another five months to assess whether this chat application must comply with the DMA.