A new report this morning notes that "a bipartisan group of US senators and representatives have urged the Department of Justice to investigate whether Apple violated antitrust laws by attempting to block Beeper Mini's access to iMessage.

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), along with Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Ken Buck (R-CO), have asked an assistant attorney general to look into “potentially anticompetitive conduct” by Apple."

Senator @amyklobuchar + @SenMikeLee + @RepJerryNadler @RepKenBuck sent this to DOJ regarding ongoing fight betwn Beeper Mini vs Apple “to investigate whether this potentially anticompetitive conduct by Apple violated antitrust laws.” I’ll have the full story on @CBSMornings tmrw pic.twitter.com/pj6ef432TK

— Jo Ling Kent (@jolingkent) December 18, 2023

The report further noted that "There have been a number of efforts in recent months to provide Android users with access to iMessage via workarounds. Earlier this month, Beeper said it was able to reverse engineer the iMessage protocol and support it on Android devices. Within a couple of days, Beeper Mini's iMessage integration was acting up and Apple (without elaborating too much) soon confirmed it had blocked an iMessage exploit.

It didn't take long for Beeper to find yet another way to get iMessage working on Android, though this time it required an Apple ID. Last week, the company said it suspected Apple was 'deliberately blocking iMessages from being delivered' to around five percent of Beeper Mini users and that it was working on a solution.

The back and forth between Beeper and Apple caught the attention of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). 'Green bubble texts are less secure. So why would Apple block a new app allowing Android users to chat with iPhone users on iMessage? Big Tech executives are protecting profits by squashing competitors,' Warren wrote on X. 'Chatting between different platforms should be easy and secure.'" For more, read the full Engadget report.