WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines

Last updated: September 23, 2026

WhatsApp is a simple, secure and reliable way to send messages and make calls. No one, not even WhatsApp, can see your personal messages which are end-to-end encrypted by default.

These Messaging Guidelines (these “Guidelines”) apply to chats, calls, group chats, status updates, and communities.

Use of the WhatsApp Messenger Application is governed by our Terms of Service and these Guidelines. The use of the WhatsApp Business App is governed by the WhatsApp Terms for WhatsApp Business App, and use of the WhatsApp Business Platform is governed by the WhatsApp Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform. All users of WhatsApp for Business must comply with our WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy located here, in addition to these Guidelines.

WhatsApp may take action against violations of our terms of service, our policies, or these Guidelines, based on the limited information available to WhatsApp, including basic account, group, and community profile information, as well as messages reported by other users. Your personal messages and calls are always protected by end-to-end encryption.

• Do not share illegal content or engage in illegal activity This includes content that sexually exploits or endangers children (including child sexual abuse material) or that supports designated terrorist organizations or individuals. Do not share intellectual property you do not have a right to use. Do not organize or coordinate violent crimes, violence against others, human trafficking, or trade in illicit drugs.
• Do not engage in adversarial behavior. This includes efforts to undermine WhatsApp integrity systems, abuse reporting tools, compromise user accounts, scrape data, or use unofficial clients, bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing, or automation to harm WhatsApp or our users.
• Do not engage in fraud or spam This includes repeated unwanted contact with WhatsApp users, and activity that scams or defrauds WhatsApp or our users through purposeful deception or impersonation.

Users can report WhatsApp contacts, groups, communities, status updates, or specific messages that potentially violate these Guidelines. You can learn more about how to report on WhatsApp here. For information on how to report potential intellectual property violations, please see here.

WhatsApp may use both automated processing techniques and human review teams to detect and review information available to us including account, group, and community profile information, as well as reported messages, for potential violations of these Guidelines.

Automated data processing is central to our review process and automates decisions for certain areas where account behavior or reported message content is highly likely to be in violation of these Guidelines.

Automation also helps us prioritize and expedite reviews by routing potentially violating accounts, groups, or communities that may require further review to human reviewers who have the right subject matter and language expertise.

When an account, group or community requires further review, our automated systems send it to a human review team to make the final decision. Our human review teams receive in-depth training, often specialize in certain policy areas or regions, and are able to review account information and reported messages. Personal messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. Our automated systems learn and improve from each decision.

When governments believe accounts, groups, or communities on WhatsApp violate local law, they may request that we review the account information available to us. Personal messages and calls are always protected by end-to-end encryption. We may also receive court orders to restrict WhatsApp accounts. We always assess the legitimacy and completeness of a government request before taking any action.

When we become aware of illegal content or a violation of our terms and policies, we may take action, including the following, and depending on the nature of the content or violation:

• Warning users of violations of these Guidelines
• Temporarily or permanently suspending an account on our service
• Preventing further activity in chats, groups and/or communities [more info here]
• Removing violating account or group profile information from our servers
• Revoking or blocking use of a group or community’s invite link, and/or
• Reporting child sexual abuse material to NCMEC and/or competent authorities

We may take additional actions as reflected in our terms of service.