India issues stern notice to Meta over Instagram ads carrying child sexual abuse material

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The Indian government has issued a stern notice to Meta, demanding an explanation after reports surfaced of child sexual abuse material appearing in paid advertisements on Instagram. This intensified scrutiny targets the social media giant's content moderatio…

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The Indian government has issued a stern notice to Meta, demanding an explanation after reports surfaced of child sexual abuse material appearing in paid advertisements on Instagram

The Centre has issued a stern notice to Meta, seeking an explanation after reports that advertisements carrying child sexual abuse material appeared on Instagram, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant's content moderation and advertising systems, sources told PTI.

The government has issued the notice on Saturday evening. "MeitY has ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to CSEAM," the sources told PTI.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has also demanded a detailed explanation within 7 days

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier directed officials in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to seek a detailed explanation from Meta on how such advertisements were approved and displayed on the platform.

“Meta has a zero tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing CSAM, including in ads. We use advanced AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection," a Meta spokesperson said.
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"That is why our expert teams are constantly working to improve our defenses, develop new technology to root out predators, block links to violating websites, and share intelligence with other companies so they can take action too.

Also Read: Meta makes a $900 million super-app move in India

The notice follows reports alleging that paid advertisements on Instagram promoted or facilitated access to child sexual abuse material in India, raising serious concerns over the platform's ad approval process and enforcement of its own safety policies.

The latest action marks the second instance this week of heightened regulatory scrutiny of Meta by the Centre. Earlier, the government had raised concerns over WhatsApp's proposed username feature, seeking details over its potential misuse in cyber fraud and online impersonation.

Also Read: India weighs legal curbs on WhatsApp usernames over impersonation risks: Sources

Meta has previously said it uses a combination of artificial intelligence, automated detection tools and human review to identify and remove child exploitation content across its platforms. The company has acknowledged, however, that no enforcement system is foolproof and that it continues to strengthen measures to detect and block such abuse at scale.

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