India is reviewing Meta’s response to its “stern” notice over Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in paid Instagram advertisements, with authorities set to decide on further action after examining the company’s reply.
The notice came after a BBC investigation published on July 3 revealed that Instagram had carried adverts promoting and facilitating access to CSAM in the country.
After the report was published, Indian authorities summoned Meta representatives and ordered Instagram to remove all ads and content related to CSAM.
The government also demanded a detailed explanation from the company within seven days.
Meta vows stronger safeguards against CSAM
Meanwhile, Meta said that it was addressing the issue seriously.
“We’re aware of recent news reports about Instagram ads in India that violated our policies against child exploitation.
“And we want to be clear: we take these concerns seriously, we never want this content on our platforms, and we’re committed to improving our efforts to combat it,” it said in its published blog.
The company stated that it was “developing new technology, blocking violating links, and sharing intelligence across the industry.”
“We will continue investing in every resource needed to keep young people safe, strengthen our ad review processes and work with law enforcement to hold criminals accountable,” it added, as reported by the Press Trust of India.
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Authorities weigh next steps
The Indian government said it would take action after reviewing Meta’s reply to the notice.
“On the CSAM content, we had issued a notice to Meta and the reply has been received. It is currently under examination,” Information Technology (IT) Secretary S Krishnan said on Monday, according to the Press Trust of India.
Meta stressed that it did not intentionally allow such content on its platforms.
Responding to the BBC, it said that “no system is perfect and our review process may not detect all policy violations.”
The company said it uses proactive, AI-powered detection technology to identify violating advertisements after they go live.
“Anyone can report an ad to us that they think breaks our rules,” Meta added.
India is the largest audience market for Meta, with 480 million users for Instagram and over 400 million for Facebook.
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BBC investigation triggers scrutiny
The BBC published its investigative article on July 3, which found that Instagram was carrying paid advertisements facilitating access to CSAM in India.
According to the report, users were directed to Telegram channels, where the material was allegedly sold.
However, when the news agency reported one of the ads, the social media platform ruled that the post did not violate its “community guidelines.”
BBC further conducted its investigation by creating an alias Instagram account based in the country.
After following several accounts posting sexually suggestive content, Instagram’s algorithm began recommending explicit ads to the alias account.
Within days, the account was shown ads containing apparent child sexual abuse materials.
BBC documented around 30 unique ads promoting CSAM, with some being repeated by multiple accounts.
After the BBC sought comment, Meta said that it had removed several ads, suspended the accounts that were responsible, removed additional violating advertisements and blocked related URLs.
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