It is not an arrangement, nor attachment to Zuckerberg. It is not beneficial to Zuckerberg or Meta for this to happen and I assure you that they are not fans of the ideea either.
The EU did this to break Meta’s monopoly on communication. Right now I can’t ditch Whatsapp no matter how much I want to because everything in my life is connected to that blasted app. My university, my employers, my family, my friends, EVERYONE is using Whatsapp and Whatsapp only. If I were to delete it, I would be isolated. I would be able to convince my family to switch to another app and probably a few of my friends, but I sure as hell won’t be able to convince my workplace or my faculty to do it. Allowing third party apps to communicate with Whatsapp is the only way I can ditch his app.
I should also mention that this will only apply to the European Union. Meta will still maintain its monopoly everywhere else. The EU is the only one that actually cares about consumer rights enough to pick a fight with the US over it and I’m thankful for that.
Edit: fixed some grammar.
It also includes the people that deleted their Twitter accounts following the acquisition. I’m one of those people and I’m especially annoyed because I only used that blasted app only to register to some giveaways when I was in middle school. I have since discontinued that email account, but still.