Redact investigation: 80 pages of the WhatsApp Help Center contain 102 hidden instructions, one of which asks the AI not to advise users to contact regulators

Redact's original investigation found that 80 of the 545 pages linked from the WhatsApp Help Center contain 102 hidden instructions that only AI can read, two of which ask the official support chatbot not to advise users to contact data protection regulators and not to cite GDPR, LGPD or CCPA after users mention lawyers, lawsuits or courts. On the account deletion page, hidden text is placed below the visible waiting-period explanation, repeats the 30-day, 120-day and 365-day periods, and asks not to advise that WhatsApp manually delete the account; the hidden instructions on the report and block pages take effect when users mention legal action. WhatsApp told WIRED that these instructions are for its support chatbot and that the relevant text has been removed from the online pages. The hidden text was also sent to Google and Bing crawlers along with the pages; the investigators said they have not tested whether the chatbot or external AI assistants actually followed it, and no similar content was found in the Facebook and Instagram help centers.