Starting mid-December, Meta will eliminate a feature allowing users to chat with Facebook friends via Instagram. The company introduced this cross-platform integration in 2020, but it did not provide a specific reason for the removal. However, 9to5Google suggests that avoiding regulatory repercussions in the EU could be a plausible reason.
The integration went live in 2020 after being announced in 2019, blurring boundaries between two of Meta’s most popular platforms. Loredena Crisan, VP of Messenger, compared it to interacting between Gmail and Yahoo accounts via the shared messenger protocol.
According to Meta, from mid-December 2023, users will not be able to initiate new chats or calls with Facebook friends through Instagram. All existing conversations with Facebook users on Instagram will become read-only. Additionally, Facebook users will no longer see Instagram users’ activity statuses or read receipts, and current chats with Facebook users will not transfer to either platform’s inbox.
The Digital Markets Act, passed in the EU in 2022, aims to prevent platforms from gaining monopolistic powers. If a platform exceeds a revenue threshold and is deemed overly dominant by the European Commission, it could face penalties of up to 10% of its total global turnover from the preceding year. Given the power this law gives the EU, Meta might have anticipated regulatory issues and considered the Instagram / Facebook cross-messaging feature not worth the potential risk.
