On Saturday, the government sent a notice to Meta, with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) instructing Instagram to disable all ads and content that promote or facilitate access to CSEAM.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw instructed MeitY officials to call Meta regarding Instagram advertisements purportedly promoting child sexual abuse material. The ministry requested an explanation from the company, as well as information on the measures taken in response.
Shortly after receiving the notice, Meta published a blog detailing its initiatives to tackle child sexual abuse material across its platforms. The blog emphasized the role of AI in detection and significant enforcement measures. It also committed to continuing investments in technology and resources aimed at safeguarding young users, while enhancing its advertisement review processes.
In a blog posted on Tuesday, the company referred to child exploitation as a “horrific crime,” underscoring its daily efforts to combat such abuse both on and off its platforms.
When asked about the IT Ministry’s perspective on Meta’s position, Krishnan, speaking at the CII GCC Business Summit, stated: “We will await the formal response to the notice we issued, and subsequently, we will form a view based on that response.”
The government’s regulatory scrutiny follows a BBC report alleging that Meta’s recommendation algorithm had been promoting videos featuring child sexual abuse material, highlighting noteworthy deficiencies in existing safeguards.
The BBC investigation also reportedly uncovered advertisements of this nature appearing on Facebook and Instagram, despite Meta’s advertising standards clearly prohibiting nudity and sexually explicit content.
Instagram was reportedly found to be displaying paid advertisements with terms such as ’rape video’ and ‘child video’, which led users to Telegram channels where such content was allegedly available for sale.
In its blog post on Tuesday, Meta explained that its advertising review process combines automated systems with human oversight to identify and eliminate policy-violating ads, while acknowledging that no system can fully catch every violation.
According to the company, advertisements are screened before being published and undergo continuous reviews, with users also able to report suspected infringements.
“This work is ongoing. Our teams are continuously enhancing our defenses — developing new technology, blocking violating links, and sharing intelligence within the industry — but we recognize that more action is needed. We will keep investing in all necessary resources to ensure young people’s safety, strengthen our ad review processes, and collaborate with law enforcement to ensure accountability for offenders,” stated Meta.
Meta elaborated on its ongoing efforts to combat child exploitation across its platforms, spotlighting AI-powered detection tools, firm policies against child nudity, abuse, and exploitation, along with large-scale enforcement actions.
“We’re aware of recent news reports regarding Instagram ads in India that breached our policies against child exploitation. We want to be clear: we take these concerns seriously, never wishing to host such content on our platforms, and we’re committed to enhancing our efforts in this area,” the company affirmed.
Meta claimed it was fundamentally incorrect to assert that it intentionally targets ads featuring children to individuals based on inappropriate interests.
“On the contrary; we utilize technology to identify accounts that display potentially suspicious activity relating to children, and last year, we automatically removed over four million such accounts,” Meta explained.
Meta confirmed it has intensified AI-driven enforcement against child exploitation, with newer systems encompassing languages spoken by 98% of online users.
The company reported that last year, it removed over four million suspicious accounts and discarded 36 million instances of child exploitation content globally.
In India, AI tools aided in the removal of 160,000 accounts in the past six months that posted suspicious links associated with exploitative activities, noted the Menlo Park, California-based technology giant, which owns popular social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
