Amber Neely
On Thursday, the European Union announced plans to enact new legislation that would demand major messaging services — including iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger — to send and receive messages, calls, videos, and files from smaller competitors.
The rule, part of the larger proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA) would require major messaging platforms to allow their services to work with smaller messaging platforms. Services that would need to work between platforms include sending messages, making video calls, and even sending files.
The rule would apply to any company that has at least 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 annually active corporate users in Europe as noted by TechCrunch.
Failure to comply with the new legislation could see violators incurring fines of up to 10% global annual turnover or up to 20% for repeat violations.
This has induced questions about the security of such an interoperable platform. Andreas Schwab, the European Parliament's Rapporteur for the file, believes it can be done safely.
"The Parliament has always been clear that interoperability for messaging has to come," Andreas told TechCrunch. "It will come — at the same time, it also has to be secure. If the Telecoms Regulators say it is not possible to deliver end-to-end encrypted group chats within the next nine months, then it will come as soon as it is possible, there will be no doubt about that."
The legislation would also force platforms to allow users to choose which web browsers, search engines, and virtual assistants they use.
The DMA has yet to be finalized, pending approval of the legal text by the Parliament and Council. Currently, there is no suggested timeline for when implementing interoperable features would need to occur.
Back in November 2020, Big Tech firms, including Apple and Google, were invited to participate in talks about the DMA.
The DMA's primary goal is to curb anti-competitive growth for tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Meta (formerly Facebook Inc.) It is the same legislation that suggested Apple allow alternate app stores to enable fair competition on its platforms.
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Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
38 Comments
It would be useful if messaging apps did talk to each other but it’s hard to see the rationale for forcing it. And as for the noncompliance fine of 10% annual turnover- ridiculous.
As long as I could block everything coming from FB...
So does the EU have ANYBODY in their legislature that has any idea how any of this stuff could be accomplished?
Apple will probably make the bubbles for other chat apps yellow.
Wow! That’s one way to limit innovation. It’s one thing to say it, another implementing it. I can only imagine the challenge while maintaining the value each platform provides.