It adds that Meta imposed unfair restrictions on data usage by the startup, limiting its ability to innovate and develop new products and services that could potentially compete with Meta's products. " … the terms and conditions governing access to WhatsApp Business API are designed to shield and insulate Facebook from potential competition, such as the potential competition presented by GovChat and enormous data it has been able to harvest which enables it to develop new services and products," said the regulator in a statement. GovChat was launched in 2018 by the South African government as a citizen engagement platform that uses the WhatsApp Business API to facilitate real-time communication. It now has 8.7 million active users and has processed over 582 million messages, as per government data.