OpenAI and Microsoft yank their chatbots, telling millions of users to head elsewhere

The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into Meta after WhatsApp rewrote its rules to block rival AI chatbots including OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot.

The problem is a WhatsApp policy update that bars AI providers from using the platform's business API (the WhatsApp Business Solution) to make their AI technologies the primary service on offer. Services like automated customer support remain allowed when AI is only incidental or ancillary, but "providing, delivering, offering, selling, or otherwise making available" such technologies via the WhatsApp Business Solution is prohibited when they are the main functionality being made available.

The update was made in October 2025 and will apply to AI providers already on the platform from January 15, 2026.

The result has been an exodus of providers. On October 21, OpenAI directed users to the ChatGPT app, noting that more than 50 million users had used ChatGPT ...