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WhatsApp's help pages hid LLM instructions: dont recommend a regulator
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10 min read
WhatsApp embedded hidden instructions for its support chatbot in help-center pages that were not visible to ordinary visitors, according to copies examined on October 8, 2026. The instructions included telling the chatbot not to recommend data-protection regulators to users unable to delete an account and not to cite or interpret the GDPR, LGPD or CCPA after a user mentioned a lawyer, lawsuit or court. WhatsApp removed the notes from live pages by mid-October. The restrictions conflicted with WhatsApp’s European privacy policy, effective July 2, 2026, which says users may request erasure of their information and complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission or another competent authority. The hidden instructions did not bar discussion of erasure requests, but told the chatbot not to suggest that WhatsApp could manually delete an account for a user. WhatsApp told WIRED that the notes were instructions for its own support chatbot. The notes appeared in 102 hidden blocks across 545 linked help-center pages. Most covered housekeeping, product guidance or safety issues, but several directed the chatbot to withhold process details or discourage alternative account-recovery and deletion routes. The notes were sent to Google and Bing crawlers with the pages; tests using crawler names associated with OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity returned pages without them. It remains unknown whether WhatsApp’s chatbot or external AI assistants followed the instructions.