Block links in a WhatsApp group: the complete antilink guide

Blocking links in a WhatsApp group is one of the first requests from anyone who starts running a community: one promoter passing through is enough to turn the chat into a billboard, and one fake link is enough for someone to lose money.

The problem is that WhatsApp has no button for this. This guide shows what you can do inside the app, how Becca solves it automatically, and how to allow the links you do want in the group, such as your store link.

Why links become a problem

A loose link in a group is usually one of these:

• Advertising: people who join only to push a store, a course or another group
• Scams: fake promotions, raffles with a fee, and pages that ask for your data
• Invites to other groups: your audience gets taken away or mixed with strangers

A single link already does damage, and the worst part is that the message stays in the group until someone sees it and deletes it.

What WhatsApp does and does not do

WhatsApp has no built-in link blocking. What you have at hand is manual:

• Pin message: keep the 'no links' rule at the top of the group, so nobody can say they did not know
• Approve new members: screen who arrives before they send anything
• Delete for everyone: admins can delete any member's message
• Send messages, Only admins: closes the whole group, which solves the link but also silences everyone

It works, but it depends on an admin being online at the right time. A link posted at 3 a.m. stays in the group until the next morning.

!antilink: choose the punishment level

With Becca as an admin, send !antilink and she opens a menu of levels. Every active level deletes the message with the link; what changes is what happens to the person who sent it:

• Only Delete: only removes the message. Good for starting out and for relaxed chat groups, where a link is usually a mistake
• Delete & Warn: deletes and adds a warning; on the third, the person is removed. Good for long-time members who sometimes send a link without thinking
• Delete & Mute: deletes and puts the person on the muted list, and Becca deletes everything they send until an admin frees them with !unmute
• Delete & Remove: deletes and removes the person right away. Good for large, open groups, where a link is almost always a scam or an ad

Admins and anyone on the !autorizar list are never punished. To turn the protection off, choose Disable in the same menu.

Allow the links you want

A store, condo or team group almost always needs a link or two. Instead of switching the protection off, allow only what is safe:

• !addlink minhaloja.com.br allows links to that address (your store site, for example). To also allow subdomains, such as www.minhaloja.com.br, add !addlink *.minhaloja.com.br
• You can also allow one specific link, such as the group's Instagram: send the full link after the command, and only that exact link gets through
• !rmlink removes one item from the list and !rmlinks clears everything
• !autorizar @member frees a trusted person from the punishments of the message protections, not only links (!antifake, which acts at the door, applies to everyone)

When the problem is only group invites or one specific site

Not every group wants to ban every link. Two commands allow a finer rule:

• !antilinkgp: deletes only invite links to other WhatsApp groups. Other links stay allowed. It uses the same levels as !antilink
• !antidominio: blocks only the sites you list with !adddominio exemplo-golpe.com. To see the list use !dominios, and to remove a site use !rmdominio

You can combine them: !antilinkgp to stop invites and !antidominio for sites you already know are a problem, leaving the rest of the internet open.

Tell whoever sent the link

Deleting in silence causes doubt: 'where is my message?'. With !msganti you set the notice Becca sends when the protection acts, as text or with media. For example, !msganti antilink | followed by your text. To go back to the default, !rmmsganti antilink.

Next step

Pin the link rule today and turn on Approve new members. If you want the rule to work 24 hours a day, add Becca to the group (R$ 15 per group per month, no lock-in, Pix or card), make her an admin, send !antilink, choose the level and allow what the group needs with !addlink. In ten minutes the chat stops depending on you watching it.