The End of Memory Bugs? Why Meta is Rewriting WhatsApp’s Core in Rust.

Meta’s Rust Revolution: Hardening WhatsApp’s Global Infrastructure for Billions

Meta engineering team has recently pulled back the curtain on its large-scale deployment of the Rust programming language within WhatsApp. This strategic move aims to fortify the platform’s security and system stability at a global scale, serving over two billion users.

Eliminating the "Memory Safety" Crisis

For years, WhatsApp’s core infrastructure relied heavily on C++. While powerful, C++ is notorious for "Memory Safety Vulnerabilities" a recurring class of bugs that lead to crashes and security exploits. Meta identified Rust as the ultimate solution due to its unique ability to:

Meta Pauses AI Character Chatbots for Teens, Citing Parental Control Upgrades

Meta Pauses AI Character Chatbots for Teens, Citing Parental Control Upgrades

Meta has officially announced a temporary suspension of its AI Character chatbots for teenage users. While the company stated that the feature will return after a series of updates, a specific timeline remains undisclosed. Despite this pause, teens can still interact with the standard Meta AI for general information and search queries.

The Shift Toward Parental Oversight

The decision is largely driven by feedback from parents and child safety advocates. Meta admitted that guardians are increasingly demanding more robust tools to monitor and control their children's interactions with AI entities. To address this, Meta is working on a suite of content moderation and supervision features specifically designed for AI-to-teen communication.

Meta to Retire "Horizon Workrooms": The Virtual Office Closes Its Doors

Meta to Retire "Horizon Workrooms": The Virtual Office Closes Its Doors

Meta has officially announced the sunsetting of its virtual reality workspace, Horizon Workrooms. The service will officially shut down on February 16, 2026. After this date, users will no longer be able to access the platform, and all associated data within Workrooms will be permanently deleted.

Immediate Action Required for Data Recovery

Meta is urging all users and organizations to back up their information before the deadline. If you have been using Workrooms for collaborative projects, you can review and download your data via the following channels:

Meta has shut down more than 550,000 social media accounts belonging to children under 16 in Australia.

Meta reported on the progress made since the Australian government began enforcing the law banning anyone under 16 from using social media in all cases, effective December 10th of last year. As of December 11th, 2025, the company had blocked approximately 550,000 accounts on its platforms belonging to users under the age of 16 in Australia.

The figures are broken down as follows: Instagram (330,639 accounts), Facebook (173,497 accounts), and Threads (39,916 accounts) (this figure further confirms that teenagers are not using Facebook).

Meta, a nuclear power plant company, has struck a deal for a combined power capacity of 6.6 GW.

 

The demand for AI continues to drive the expansion of data computing centers, and consequently, the need for sufficient electricity. Recently, Meta announced agreements with three more nuclear power companies as part of its nuclear power plant proposal program, which it has been pursuing since 2024.

The three companies are reactor developers TerraPower and Oklo. Meta will support the development of new-generation reactors and the Vistra power plant, which will utilize this new reactor technology to generate electricity at its three existing nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Meta will also provide funding for the expansion of these power plants.

Meta has closed a deal to acquire Manus, a general AI agent company from Singapore.

A major acquisition news story to end the year: Meta has agreed to acquire Manus, an artificial intelligence company headquartered in Singapore. The official value of the deal was not disclosed, but it is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Following the completion of the deal, the entire Manus team will relocate to Meta's Singapore office.

Manus's core product is a General AI Agent capable of performing various basic tasks, including computer management. It excels in in-depth research, automation, and handling complex tasks. Since its launch, the agent has processed over 147 trillion tokens and created over 80 million virtual computers to assist with tasks. It currently has millions of users worldwide and generates over $100 million in recurring revenue over the past 12 months, despite its relatively short launch.

Italy has ordered WhatsApp to lift its ban on third-party chatbots connecting to the platform.

 

WhatsApp has updated its terms of service, stating that creating accounts that use the Business API to directly connect to AI chatbot services is prohibited, as it violates the intended use. This condition does not affect general customer service accounts that use chatbots to answer questions, but it impacts chatbot providers that add WhatsApp as a communication channel, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others.

The Italian competition authority, AGCM, stated that it had sufficient information during its investigation of Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, regarding the alleged unfair advantage created by these terms of service. Because only Meta AI chatbots could still be connected, while others could not, the authority ordered Meta to revoke the restriction.

Facebook is testing limiting direct link posts to only two per month.

 

Facebook has confirmed a test of "limiting" direct link posting, affecting Professional Mode accounts (also known as monetizing creator accounts) and Pages. Only two links per month will be allowed (organic posts only), unless the account pays for Meta Verified.

Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, posted more details about the test, including information he gathered from Meta. He learned that the company wants to test whether limiting link posting would increase the value of Meta Verified. Several aspects are being considered, such as increased link clicks if the posting account has the blue Verified checkmark, and the fact that while external links take traffic away from the platform, Meta benefits from subscription fees. However, this test is on a limited scale and there are no plans to expand it to all creators.