分类： politics

‘There is no one else’ – Platner voters on backing the controversial Democrat

On a crisp Election Day across the pine-tree lined districts of Maine, BBC reporters sat down with Democratic voters to unpack the driving forces behind their support for their party’s controversial U.S. Senate candidate, who is set to take on longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins this election cycle.

Across multiple conversations, a consistent theme emerged: even with the well-documented controversy surrounding Platner, the vast majority of Democratic voters interviewed made clear they see no better alternative to unseat Collins. Many respondents framed their choice not as an enthusiastic endorsement of every position Platner has taken over his career, but as a strategic and ideological commitment to flipping the Senate seat held by Collins, a figure who has become a polarizing force in Maine politics over her decades in Washington.

Several voters acknowledged the criticisms that have dogged Platner’s campaign, from past policy stances that have angered some progressive factions of the party to ethical questions raised by opposing groups. Yet even with these concerns top of mind, nearly all interviewees reiterated the phrase echoed across the state: ‘There is no one else.’

Background context for this race: Collins, first elected to the Senate in 1996, has long held a reputation as a moderate Republican willing to cross party lines. But in recent years, shifting national political dynamics have made her seat a top target for national Democrats, who have poured resources into flipping it to help maintain or gain partisan control of the upper chamber. Platner, the Democratic nominee, emerged from a crowded primary field, but his nomination left some factions of the state party dissatisfied, leading to ongoing questions about whether rank-and-file Democratic voters would turn out to support him in the general election.

The on-the-ground interviews from Election Day, however, suggest that concerns about voter apathy around Platner’s controversial candidacy may be overstated. Voters repeatedly emphasized that their top priority is replacing Collins, and that even with his flaws, Platner is the only candidate who can deliver that outcome for Maine. Many noted that they have supported Democratic candidates for statewide and national office for years, and that defeating what they frame as extreme GOP leadership in Washington is the defining issue of this election for them, outweighing any concerns they hold about their own party’s nominee.

9 6 月, 2026
Colombian presidential candidate urges prosecutors to investigate alleged voter coercion

As Colombia prepares for its June 21 presidential runoff election, a tense dispute over electoral integrity has erupted after conservative candidate Abelardo de la Espriella called on national prosecutors to open a formal investigation into claims that illegal rebel groups pressured voters in remote rural municipalities to back his rival, ruling-party contender Iván Cepeda, during the May 31 first round of voting.

De la Espriella’s campaign confirmed in an official statement this week that the candidate has formally filed a complaint with prosecutorial authorities, pointing to anomalous first-round results that saw Cepeda capture more than 70% of the vote across 109 municipalities where active illegal armed groups operate, with vote shares reaching as high as 97% in some isolated locations. While the campaign acknowledged that these lopsided results do not on their own serve as conclusive evidence of electoral fraud, they argue the numbers demand a full review to determine if threats, intimidation, or coercive tactics were used to strip voters of their free will and skew the outcome. As of Tuesday, Cepeda’s campaign has not issued any public response to the allegations.

The contentious first round ended with a razor-thin lead for de la Espriella, a conservative pro-Trump lawyer who goes by the political nickname “The Tiger,” who captured 43.7% of the national vote. Cepeda, a sitting senator and close ally of current leftist President Gustavo Petro who previously served as a member of Colombia’s Communist Party, finished just 2.8 points behind with 40.9% of the vote. The close finish forced the two candidates into a head-to-head runoff, where the winner will secure a four-year term leading the South American nation.

Cepeda, who has long served as a mediator between the Colombian government and the country’s remaining Marxist rebel groups, has positioned himself as the heir to Petro’s signature “total peace” policy, which has prioritized negotiated peace talks with active illegal armed groups that emerged following the 2016 peace deal with the FARC rebel movement. While Cepeda has stated he would support continuing negotiations with minor adjustments to strategy, de la Espriella has run on a hardline platform that promises to scrap the peace talks entirely and resume aggressive aerial fumigation of coca crops, the raw material for the country’s massive illegal cocaine trade.

The allegations of voter coercion have gained partial credence from a preliminary statement released by the European Union’s electoral observation mission, which confirmed it has received multiple complaints from voters across the country reporting pressure from both government officials and illegal armed groups during the May 31 vote. The mission did not, however, specify which candidate the pressure was aimed at supporting.

The high-stakes race drew international attention last week after former U.S. President Donald Trump officially endorsed de la Espriella on his Truth Social platform, praising the 47-year-old conservative as a “Smart, Strong and Tough Leader” who would deliver on restoring “LAW AND ORDER!” to Colombia. President Petro hit back at the endorsement in a post on X, arguing that foreign interference in domestic electoral affairs spells the death of national sovereignty, writing that “freedom dies” when one country meddles in the internal politics of another.

Security policy has emerged as the defining issue of the 2025 Colombian presidential race, alongside longstanding voter concerns over systemic corruption and a struggling public healthcare system. The lopsided vote shares that sparked the current controversy are concentrated along Colombia’s Pacific coast, a longstanding leftist stronghold that has consistently supported Petro’s administration. Independent political analysts have noted that while the region is reliably pro-government, the unusually high vote shares for Cepeda align with broader warnings that armed groups have used government-granted ceasefires under the “total peace” strategy to consolidate control over remote rural communities. These groups, which run illicit operations including cocaine production laboratories and enforce unofficial “taxation” on legal businesses in their territories, have a well-documented history of intimidating civilians who oppose their influence, analysts added.

9 6 月, 2026
Watch: Moment Trump is booed during the national anthem at NBA Finals

A viral moment captured on camera during the 2010s NBA Finals showed former US President Donald Trump being met with loud boos from the crowd inside the arena as the national anthem played. The incident drew immediate attention from political observers, sports fans, and media outlets across the country, quickly spreading across social media platforms. Video footage of the reaction clearly captured the widespread negative sentiment from attendees toward the sitting president at the time. Despite what multiple witnesses and shared footage confirmed, Trump later pushed back on the narrative, claiming the crowd’s reaction was actually “mostly cheers”. In his brief comments following the event, he also characterized the overall in-arena atmosphere as boisterous and highly energetic, framing the crowd’s energy as a positive sign of enthusiasm surrounding the championship series. The clash between the recorded public reaction and Trump’s post-event description sparked widespread debate about political polarization in public spaces, particularly at high-profile national sporting events that draw tens of millions of viewers across the country. Many analysts noted that the moment underscored how deeply divided American public opinion was at the time, even in settings that traditionally bring diverse audiences together around shared athletic competition.

9 6 月, 2026
UK: Study shows Gaza a major reason for collapse in support for Labour

A newly released opinion study has uncovered a major political shift unfolding across the United Kingdom, rooted in widespread voter anger over the conflict in Gaza. The data confirms that more than 50 percent of former Labour Party voters who plan to back another centre or left-wing party in the next national general election point to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a key factor driving their decision to abandon Keir Starmer’s party.

Commissioned jointly by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Friends of the Earth, and carried out by leading UK pollster Opinium, the findings underscore how the Gaza crisis and the UK government’s ongoing alignment with Israel continue to reshape the country’s political landscape, contradicting a common narrative that public outrage over the conflict is limited to a small, sectarian, or Muslim-only base of opposition.

The poll analyzed voting patterns from last month’s UK local elections, tracking how voters who supported Labour in the 2024 general election shifted their support in these local contests. Data shows that 40.7 percent of these defecting voters switched their allegiance to the left-wing Green Party, which saw historic gains across the country in last month’s ballots. Another 29.6 percent moved to the centrist Liberal Democrats, 11.1 percent backed the right-wing Reform UK, and 9.3 percent switched to the governing Conservative Party.

Among all ex-Labour voters who shifted to other centre and left-wing parties, 53 percent confirmed that the current UK Labour government’s support for Israel was an influencing factor in their decision to switch. Broken down, 21 percent said the issue influenced their choice “a great deal,” while an additional 31 percent said it impacted their vote “somewhat.”

The poll also highlighted clear generational divides in voter sentiment over the Gaza conflict. Two-thirds of voters aged 18 to 34 who left Labour cited Gaza as a motivating factor, compared to 54 percent of voters aged 35 to 49, 49 percent of 50 to 64-year-olds, and 43 percent of voters aged 65 and older. The strongest correlation between Gaza discontent and defection, though, was seen among voters who switched to the Green Party: two-thirds of these new Green voters said the Labour Party’s stance on Gaza pushed them to switch their support. For context, just 32 percent of ex-Labour voters who moved to the Liberal Democrats cited Gaza as a factor, compared to 44 percent of those who switched to the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, or independent centre-left candidates.

Led by Zack Polanski, the Green Party recorded dramatic gains in last month’s local elections, a surge that pollster Sir John Curtice noted came primarily at Labour’s expense. Curtice observed that the Greens inflicted far deeper damage on Labour’s vote share than right-wing challenger Reform UK in these contests.

Further data from the election breakdown shows that candidates who signed PSC’s “Pledge for Palestine” — a commitment to advance Palestinian rights if elected — won 27 percent of the seats they contested, outperforming Labour candidates who won just 22 percent of seats they contested. Reform UK candidates won 30 percent of the seats they contested, while Liberal Democrat candidates took 21 percent, just one point behind Labour.

This reporting comes from Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, in-depth coverage of the Middle East, North Africa, and global affairs connected to the region.

9 6 月, 2026
Trump says Iran shot down US helicopter and vows to respond

In a sharp escalation of tensions between Washington and Tehran, former President Donald Trump has publicly blamed Iran for shooting down a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter operating near the Strait of Hormuz, pledging a U.S. military response would follow out of what he called “national necessity.”

Both crew members on board the downed aircraft survived the incident and were pulled from regional waters unharmed in a rescue operation led by an uncrewed American surface drone, senior U.S. military officials confirmed to the BBC. U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the U.S. military’s regional command overseeing operations across the Middle East, released a formal statement Tuesday confirming the pair of soldiers had been safely extracted roughly two hours after the helicopter went down off the coast of Oman during a routine maritime patrol.

“There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured,” Trump wrote in a post Tuesday to his Truth Social platform. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

The downing marks the first complete loss of a U.S. Apache helicopter since open conflict between the U.S. and Iran began, and it comes at a critical diplomatic juncture: just days prior, Trump stated that Washington was in “the final throes” of negotiating a new deal with Tehran to end the ongoing regional standoff.

Centcom’s official account of the incident confirmed the timeline, noting the rescue was completed at 19:33 EDT (23:33 GMT) Monday, with the operation led by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division, backed by additional support from U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and 5th Fleet Task Force 59 units. A Centcom spokesperson later clarified that the actual recovery of the two crew members was carried out by an unmanned surface drone operated by Task Force 59, a Bahrain-based special unit launched in 2024 that specializes in integrating unmanned systems with human operators to strengthen maritime security across the Middle East.

Minutes ahead of Trump’s public statement on the incident, Iran’s top nuclear and diplomatic negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf posted a stark warning on his own social media channel, signaling Tehran’s rejection of any Western diplomatic coercion. “We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently,” Qalibaf wrote. “Break your commitments, and we’ll switch to what we speak best. You ride the horse you saddled!”

As of Tuesday, the White House has not released any details on what form a U.S. response to the incident could take, leaving regional allies and global markets bracing for further escalation in one of the world’s most critical energy transit chokepoints.

9 6 月, 2026
UK, France and other Western nations issue new sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank

In a coordinated diplomatic move that amplifies international pressure on Israel over mounting settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, a coalition of six Western nations announced new joint targeted sanctions against extremist settlers, pro-settlement organizations, and a senior hard-line Israeli cabinet minister on Tuesday. The joint declaration was released by top foreign policy officials from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Norway, and New Zealand, marking a significant escalation of global pushback against Israel’s policies in the occupied territory.

In their joint statement, the group of diplomats highlighted a long-standing pattern of abuse that has gone unchecked by Israeli authorities. “Extremist violent settlers, with the backing of their supporters, continue to attack Palestinians and abuse their human rights,” the statement read. “For too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the government of Israel.”

For the past four years, Israel’s hard-right ruling coalition, which is heavily influenced and led by settler movement leaders and their political allies, has overseen a dramatic surge in new settlement construction across the West Bank. Parallel to this expansion, the territory has seen a sharp rise in violent attacks by settlers against Palestinian residents and their property, with very few perpetrators facing legal consequences. The overwhelming majority of the international community has long maintained that all Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank violates international law, and frames it as one of the core obstacles to a lasting two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

These new coordinated sanctions come as European nations face growing public and political criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its ongoing land policies in the West Bank. Unlike the sweeping, economy-wide sanctions imposed on states such as Iran and Russia, the new measures remain narrowly targeted, leaving broad bilateral trade including military arms transactions completely unaffected. Each participating nation implemented its own specific set of restrictions under the coordinated framework.

As part of its contribution to the sanctions, France has issued an entry ban against Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right religious party leader who has spearheaded the government’s aggressive settlement expansion agenda. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed the ban in a social media post, noting it targets individuals “those responsible for the intensification of settlement activity and violence in the West Bank.”

Smotrich, who recently ordered the eviction of a long-established Palestinian hamlet in the West Bank, openly framed the eviction as a retaliatory response to unconfirmed reports that he could face an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague over alleged war crimes. The ICC does not publicly confirm the existence of pending arrest warrants or investigation requests.

Barrot outlined that Smotrich, in his role overseeing Israeli settlement policy, is “actively promoting” the unilateral annexation of the West Bank, further expansion of Israeli settlements, the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza, and economic policies designed to force the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. “These are policies that the overwhelming majority of the international community cannot accept,” Barrot added. Beyond the entry ban on Smotrich, France has also barred four leaders of pro-settlement extremist groups and 21 individual settlers accused of perpetrating violence against Palestinians from entering French territory.

The United Kingdom also joined the action, with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper telling the House of Commons that the U.K. was imposing sanctions on six entities and multiple individuals linked to settlement financing and settler violence. “We have targeted some of the most notorious individuals, the most significant settler entities, and the extremist figures in the Israeli cabinet who are inciting these acts,” Cooper said.

Israeli officials have pushed back fiercely against the new measures. Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the sanctions as “disgraceful measures” that “only serve to fuel that antisemitism.” Ahead of the official announcement, Israel’s Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka told The Associated Press that the sanctions would ultimately backfire. “Sanctioning government entities or government-connected entities is not helping in any way. On the contrary, it is actually helping those extremists,” Zarka said.

The six-nation action follows new sanctions implemented recently by the 27-member European Union, which targeted both Hamas leaders and Israeli settler organizations and their leadership. Today, more than 700,000 Israeli residents live in settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War that Palestinians claim as the core of their future independent state.

This report included contributions from multiple Associated Press journalists across Brussels, London, Paris, The Hague, and Ramallah.

9 6 月, 2026
Peru’s presidential runoff shows a razor-thin gap between candidates

LIMA, Peru — Nearly three days after Peru held its tightly contested presidential runoff election on Sunday, the race between the two remaining candidates has shrunk to a margin of fewer than 20,000 votes, with 96% of all ballots now processed by national electoral authorities. As it stands, the South American nation is set to swear in its ninth head of state in just a decade when the winner takes office.

Official electoral data released Tuesday puts nationalist congressman Roberto Sánchez at 50.055% of the total valid vote, while his conservative challenger Keiko Fujimori trails narrowly at 49.945%. To date, electoral workers have counted more than 17.8 million ballots across the country and from overseas polling locations.

The runoff marks the final stage of a months-long electoral process that began with an initial 35-candidate field in April’s general election. Both Sánchez and Fujimori advanced to the second round, but neither candidate managed to break the 20% support threshold in the first round of voting. It took electoral officials more than four weeks to officially confirm the two candidates’ advancement to the runoff, amid delays in processing results.

Peru’s top electoral official Roberto Burneo has confirmed that the final official result of Sunday’s runoff will not be announced for up to 30 days. Burneo has issued a public call for both voters and affiliated political groups to uphold democratic responsibility amid the ongoing counting process.

The extended timeline for finalizing results stems from two key structural factors laid out in Peruvian electoral law. First, national rules require every individual ballot and polling station vote tally sheet to be transported to one of more than 100 regional processing offices for manual verification. Second, all ballots and tallies from citizens voting abroad must be shipped back to the capital Lima for counting, with overseas polling locations spread across 63 different countries.

Voting is a legal requirement for all Peruvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 70, with non-participation carrying a maximum fine of $32. In total, more than 27 million Peruvians are registered to vote in the election, with roughly 1.2 million of those registered voters residing outside the country, the majority based in the United States and Argentina.

For most voters heading to the polls on Sunday, the top issue driving their decision was the country’s rapidly surging violent crime, particularly a sharp rise in extortion cases across the nation. Political analysts and security experts broadly link the growing influence of organized criminal groups in Peru to expanding profits from unregulated illegal gold mining operations across the Andes mountain range and Amazon basin.

Once the final result is confirmed, the winning candidate will be inaugurated for a full five-year presidential term on July 28. Notably, neither candidate entered the runoff with broad popular support, as both are closely tied to controversial former Peruvian presidents whose legacies remain divisive among the electorate.

Fujimori is the daughter of late former president Alberto Fujimori, whose 1990s administration was marked by authoritarian rule and widespread proven corruption. After her parents separated in 1994, she served as Peru’s official first lady during the remainder of her father’s term. On the other side of the race, Sánchez is one of the closest political allies of imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office over corruption allegations and widespread perceptions of mismanagement. Castillo’s 16-month tenure saw unprecedented political instability, with more than 70 changes to his presidential cabinet.

9 6 月, 2026
AP Interview: Albania’s leader defends Kushner-linked luxury development

Mass public demonstrations and competing investigations have failed to shift the Albanian government’s commitment to a high-end coastal development project tied to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama confirmed in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press this week.

The controversial multi-component project, which plans to build luxury hotels, private apartments, upscale villas, and a superyacht marina, has drawn thousands of daily protesters to the streets outside the prime minister’s office in central Tirana. Critics have raised urgent red flags over the project’s planned footprint: one section sits on the protected Narta Lagoon, a critical nature reserve for migratory wild birds, while the second smaller resort component is earmarked for Sazan, an uninhabited former Cold War-era communist military base untouched by large-scale development.

Rama has pushed back hard against environmental and public backlash, framing widespread opposition as a product of amplified misinformation and manipulated half-truths. He noted that the project originated from an unexpected chance encounter: Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump stopped to refuel their yacht in the Albanian port of Durres during a trip to Montenegro, where they praised the nation’s natural scenery at a dinner with Rama. Months later, the pair reconnected at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Kushner formally expressed interest in investing in Albania’s growing tourism sector. An investment firm affiliated with Kushner has since been granted special investor status by Albanian regulators.

Despite heavy machinery already arriving on site to clear vegetation, build access roads, and install fencing in the protected reserve starting in late May, Rama maintains the project remains in the preliminary planning stage. He stressed that no formal environmental impact assessment has been launched because the final blueprints are still being refined by international architects and environmental specialists. The prime minister pushed back on claims the government is disregarding ecological protections, pointing to his administration’s existing conservation wins including a 10-year national hunting moratorium that helped restore flamboyingo populations and other native wildlife across the country.

For the Albanian government, the project represents far more than a private investment: it is framed as a transformative step for the small former communist nation, which has spent decades working to raise its international profile, attract high-value foreign capital, and expand its nascent luxury tourism sector as it pursues official European Union membership. Rama argued the project signals a landmark shift for Albania, moving it from a nation largely overlooked by global investors to a top destination for large-scale international capital.

When asked directly if he would consider stepping back from the controversial plan, Rama rejected the possibility outright, responding simply, “Step back from what?” Critics have raised multiple red flags beyond environmental harm, however: Albania’s national anti-corruption agency has already opened an investigation into the project, amid competing legal claims over the privatization of the project’s land. While the government asserts the acreage is now privately owned, opposing parties have challenged the legitimacy of the original privatization process.

Rama acknowledged that much of the current backlash has been amplified by outside influences, pointing to a long-running pattern of cyber interference from Iran, which Albania has repeatedly accused of orchestrating hacking campaigns against the country’s digital infrastructure in retaliation for Albania hosting a major Iranian opposition group. Tehran has consistently denied these allegations. The prime minister was careful to clarify that he does not accuse individual, grassroots protesters of being foreign agents, but said bad-faith foreign manipulation has inflated public anger and spread distorted claims about the project.

9 6 月, 2026
Israel’s Ben Gvir calls for arresting Lebanese ‘women and youth’ to pressure Hezbollah

Tensions across the Israel-Lebanon border have surged to new heights after a senior Israeli far-right minister publicly called for the abduction of Lebanese women and young people as a pressure tactic against the Hezbollah militant group, sparking fresh international condemnation over alleged violations of international humanitarian law.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir laid out the extreme proposal during a closed-door Israeli security cabinet meeting on Tuesday, a gathering where top officials uniformly backed a plan to expand ongoing military operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In remarks confirming his stance after the meeting, Ben Gvir argued for unorthodox strategies to weaken the group. “Let’s start thinking outside the box about Hezbollah,” he said, adding: “Conquering territory and killing many terrorists, but also arresting their women and youth and holding them in Israeli prisons. That is what hurts them the most.”

Ben Gvir’s proposal does not exist in a vacuum: records confirm that Israeli forces have already abducted dozens of unnamed Lebanese civilians since the 2024 cross-border war began, though the exact total remains undisclosed. These captives are among 1,316 people currently detained under Israel’s controversial 2002 “unlawful combatant” law, a statute originally crafted to enable indefinite, renewable detention of Lebanese individuals who fall outside Israeli formal jurisdiction. The law allows Israeli authorities to hold detainees without formal indictments, court-issued arrest warrants, or access to legal counsel. It also permits officials to withhold information about detainees’ whereabouts and conditions of detention, a practice leading global human rights organizations have labeled a blatant breach of binding international law. The current detainee population held under this law also includes hundreds of Palestinian people from Gaza and Syrian nationals.

Escalation of hostilities remains at the top of the Israeli government’s agenda, even after the United States announced a ceasefire agreement for Lebanon in mid-April. According to official statements from the security cabinet meeting, Israeli leaders have formally pushed to expand military strikes and dramatically increase defense allocations for the campaign against Hezbollah. Development Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf called on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to immediately unlock additional funding for military artillery and operations, a demand that received quick backing from Defense Minister Israel Katz. “The prime minister made an important decision to attack, and we must expand our armaments even further,” Katz said.

Lebanese officials have already documented the staggering human cost of unrelenting Israeli strikes that have continued despite the purported ceasefire. Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa confirmed this week that Israeli forces have carried out roughly 3,500 separate attacks and hundreds of controlled explosions across Lebanese territory since the 17 April ceasefire was announced. The ongoing violence has displaced more than 1.2 million Lebanese people nationwide, according to official data. Lebanon’s health ministry reports that at least 3,637 people have been killed by Israeli forces since the latest large-scale assault began in March, with more than 800 of those deaths occurring after the mid-April ceasefire announcement. For its part, Hezbollah’s cross-border strikes have killed 34 Israelis since March, the majority of them active-duty soldiers, including 18 fatalities in the period following the 17 April truce announcement.

This report draws on independent on-the-ground reporting from Middle East Eye, a media organization specializing in original coverage of the Middle East, North Africa and adjacent regions.

9 6 月, 2026
EU orders Meta to restore WhatsApp access for rival AI chatbots

BRUSSELS – In a landmark move targeting Big Tech market power in the fast-expanding artificial intelligence sector, European Union antitrust regulators issued a mandatory interim order on Tuesday requiring Meta Platforms to reinstate full access to the WhatsApp platform for competing AI chatbot developers, a requirement that will stay in effect for the duration of an ongoing antitrust investigation into the tech giant’s restrictive business practices.

The European Commission, the EU’s 27-nation executive body and primary competition enforcement authority, framed the intervention as a proactive step to protect emerging competition in the AI assistant market before irreversible harm to market dynamics can occur. The regulator launched its investigation into Meta’s WhatsApp AI policies last year, after flagging concerns that the company had violated EU competition rules by blocking third-party AI developers from offering their own AI assistant services on the popular messaging platform, effectively locking the market for Meta’s in-house chatbot.

The probe centered on updated terms of service Meta rolled out for business customers that use AI-powered tools to engage with consumers via WhatsApp. After regulators raised objections, Meta attempted to resolve the investigation by offering to grant access to competitors for a fee. But the offer failed to allay regulatory concerns, with the Commission threatening in April to force Meta to allow free access for rival developers. Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, told reporters Tuesday that Meta’s proposed pricing was so prohibitive that it remained “not economically sustainable for competitors” to operate on the platform.

Under the terms of the new order, Meta must open the paid WhatsApp Business platform to competing AI chatbot providers for no charge. The interim measure will remain in force until either the conclusion of the full antitrust investigation or June 2029, whichever comes first – the investigation currently has no set deadline for completion. Non-compliance with the order could expose Meta to heavy penalties, with fines reaching as high as 10% of the company’s global annual revenue.

Meta immediately announced it would challenge the order, calling the Commission’s decision an overreach of regulatory authority. “The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free,” the company said in an official statement. “This is regulatory overreach subsidized by the many European companies that pay.”

Tuesday’s action marks a notable shift in the Commission’s approach to Big Tech antitrust enforcement. For years, the regulator faced widespread criticism that its multi-year investigations into major tech platforms moved far too slowly to curb abusive market power, allowing anti-competitive practices to become entrenched before regulators could intervene. In response, the Commission has increasingly turned to interim measures in fast-moving markets where consumer and competitive harm can accumulate rapidly. Ribera emphasized that this urgency is particularly warranted in the AI sector, which is evolving at an unprecedented pace.

“AI markets are developing exceptionally fast, and AI assistants are expected to become an important way for consumers all across Europe to access and use AI,” Ribera said. “Therefore, when the damage can happen quickly and there is a risk of companies being forced to leave the market, we need to use our tools.”

9 6 月, 2026