India calls on Meta regarding Instagram advertisements that endorse child sexual abuse content.

      India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will call Meta executives after a BBC investigation revealed that Instagram had been running paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material to users in the country. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has instructed ministry officials to request a formal explanation from the company, as reported by Business Standard, citing government sources. An official from the IT ministry indicated that Meta's executives have been requested to attend in person.

      “We have noted the reports alleging that Meta took no action despite being informed about ads featuring CSAM and inappropriate, illegal search terms,” said the official. This marks the ministry's second intervention against the company within the week, following a prior order instructing WhatsApp to halt its planned usernames feature pending a consultation.

      The BBC's investigation, led by journalist Divya Arya and published on July 3, involved setting up a test Instagram account in India and tracking ten women who shared lifestyle content in revealing clothing to observe the recommendations generated by the system. Within a week, the account began receiving ads for video calls and explicit adult content, and MediaNama's summary mentions that shortly thereafter, it started receiving ads showing children in sexually suggestive scenarios with adults.

      Those advertisements allegedly utilized search terms such as “rape video” and “child video,” directing users to Telegram channels where the material was purportedly available for as low as 99 rupees. According to the BBC, its test account alone received approximately 30 different ads promoting the material—some of which were repeated on other accounts—alongside around 20 additional ads for explicit adult content.

      Meta's initial response was disheartening. When the BBC flagged one ad using Instagram’s reporting tool, the company replied within a day, stating that its review team determined the ad “does not go against our community standards,” as per the BBC’s report. It was only after BBC journalists reached out to Meta directly for an official comment that the company disabled several ads, suspended the accounts associated with them, and blocked related Telegram links.

      Meta later described the practice as a “horrific crime” and claimed to have removed additional ads and accounts beyond those pointed out by the BBC. The company also stated, in a way that may not satisfy child-safety advocates, that “no system is perfect, and our review process may not catch all policy violations,” while emphasizing its continued use of proactive detection tools and user reporting.

      This incident is part of a broader trend of scrutiny on platforms regarding how they manage material involving children. Meta is currently challenging the fee calculations under the UK’s Online Safety Act in the High Court, and the European Commission has found the company in violation of EU regulations regarding child protection on its platforms. In the United States, Meta has been lobbying Congress for protection against child-harm lawsuits, a move that contrasts sharply with the findings released this week.

      India's intermediary regulations mandate that platforms must remove illegal content once notified by a court or a government authority, and they must maintain effective grievance and takedown mechanisms to uphold their safe-harbor protection under Section 79 of the IT Act. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has utilized this authority before, having sent notices in October 2023 to X, YouTube, and Telegram, cautioning them about the need to eliminate CSAM from their services, a parallel to MediaNama’s reporting on the current situation.

      What actions the ministry will take following Meta’s executives' appearance is yet to be determined. At the time of writing, no date for the meeting had been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether the summons will result in a formal notice, a penalty, or merely a recorded explanation. The government has not indicated whether it intends to investigate Instagram's ad review process more extensively beyond the specific ads highlighted by the BBC.