Meta is expected to remove a feature this month that allowed users to chat with their Facebook friends on Instagram. From mid-December the company will disconnect the cross-platform integration which was added in 2020.

“Just like today you could talk to a Gmail account if you have a Yahoo account, these accounts will be able to talk to each other through the shared protocol that is Messenger,” Messenger VP Loredena Crisan had said at the time of launch.

Any existing conversations with Facebook accounts on Instagram will become read-only, while Facebook accounts won’t be able to see activity status or view read receipts.

While no reason has been provided for the disintegration, it has been presumed it’s because of EU Digital Markets Act that deters platform holders from keeping monopoly. European Commission can deem a company overly dominant with reference to its revenue threshold, and place a 10% penalty on the overall previous year’s turnover.