Frankfurt: German regulators told Facebook on Tuesday to stop processing user data from its instant messaging service WhatsApp, citing a privacy policy update that could violate European data protection rules.

Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner in Hamburg, the city where Facebook has its German headquarters, issued an order banning the social media giant from processing German users' WhatsApp data for three months.

"The order is intended to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the many millions of users throughout Germany who give their consent to the terms of use," Caspar said in a statement.