India has called upon Meta regarding Instagram advertisements that promote child sexual abuse content.

      India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology plans to summon Meta executives following a BBC investigation that revealed Instagram was running paid ads 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, which referenced government sources.

      An official from the ministry mentioned that Meta’s executives have been asked to attend in person. "We have taken note of reports alleging that Meta did not take action despite being informed about ads containing CSAM and illegal search terms," the official stated. This marks the ministry's second action against the company in the same week, after previously ordering WhatsApp to pause its planned usernames feature for consultation.

      The BBC investigation, carried out by journalist Divya Arya and published on July 3, involved creating a test Instagram account in India. It followed ten women posting lifestyle content in revealing clothing to analyze the system's recommendations. Within a week, the account began receiving ads for video calls and explicit adult content, and shortly thereafter, it began encountering ads depicting children in sexually suggestive scenarios with adults.

      These ads allegedly included search terms such as “rape video” and “child video,” leading to Telegram channels where such material was reportedly available for as little as 99 rupees. The BBC noted that the test account received around 30 unique ads for this content, with some repeated across other accounts, in addition to about 20 further ads for explicit adult material.

      Meta's initial response was not favorable. When the BBC reported an ad using Instagram's reporting tool, the company responded within a day, stating that its review team had determined the ad "does not go against our community standards," according to the BBC's account. It was only after BBC journalists sought an on-the-record comment from Meta that the company disabled several ads, suspended the accounts responsible, and blocked related Telegram links.

      Meta later condemned the practice as a "horrific crime" and mentioned it had removed additional ads and accounts beyond those highlighted by the BBC. The company added, in a statement that may offer little reassurance to child-safety advocates, that “no system is perfect, and our review process may not detect all policy violations,” while noting its ongoing efforts with proactive detection tools and user reports.

      This incident is part of a broader scrutiny facing platforms regarding how they manage content involving children. Meta is currently contesting the UK’s Online Safety Act fee calculations in the High Court and has been found by the European Commission to breach EU regulations regarding child protection on its platforms. In the United States, Meta has been lobbying Congress for immunity from child-harm lawsuits, a lobbying effort that contrasts with the findings from this week.

      India's intermediary rules mandate that platforms remove unlawful content once notified by a court or government agency and maintain effective grievance and takedown mechanisms to retain safe-harbour protection under Section 79 of the IT Act. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has previously used this authority: in October 2023, it issued notices to X, YouTube, and Telegram, instructing them to eliminate CSAM from their platforms, a precedent referenced in MediaNama’s reporting on the current situation.

      It remains to be seen what actions the ministry will take after Meta’s executives appear. No date for the meeting has been disclosed at the time of writing, and it is unclear whether the summons will result in a formal notice, a penalty, or merely a recorded explanation. The government has not indicated if it will investigate Instagram’s ad-review process more broadly beyond the specific ads identified by the BBC.