Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it disagreed with an order by India's competition watchdog that placed data-sharing restrictions between WhatsApp and its other applications and said it would legally challenge the order.

India’s competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Meta units for advertising purposes for five years and also levied a fine of $25.4 million for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privacy policy.

Meta has been penalised Rs 213.14 crore by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), citing abuse of its market dominance through WhatsApp's controversial 2021 privacy policy. The policy, which mandated extensive data sharing between WhatsApp and other Meta entities, drew regulatory ire for its restrictive nature.

Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it plans to appeal an order by India's competition watchdog that restricts the U.S. tech firm from sharing data for advertising between WhatsApp and its other applications and also imposed a $25.

In January 2021, WhatsApp had notified users that it was updating its privacy policy – which was mandatory for them to accept – with an expanded scope of data collection and data sharing between Meta companies.

India's Competition Commission has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Meta apps for five years.

According to the CCI order, “The 2021 policy update by WhatsApp on a ‘take it-or-leave-it’ basis constitutes an imposition of unfair conditions under the Act, as it compels all users to accept expanded data collection terms and sharing of data within Meta Group without any opt-out.”

India's Competition Commission (CCI) has fined Meta INR 213.14 crore for abusing its market dominance through WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy update

Meta defends WhatsApp's privacy policy update. The spokesperson clarified that the 2021 update didn't change the privacy of people's personal messages. They stressed it was pitche

India's competition watchdog directed WhatsApp to refrain from sharing user data for advertising purposes with other applications owned by Meta for a period of five years and fined the U.S. tech giant $25.