Govt to summon Meta officials over Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse
The Centre will summon Meta officials after an investigation alleged that Instagram displayed advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and redirected users to Telegram channels selling such content.
The Central government will summon officials of Meta after Instagram allegedly carried advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India, according to sources.
Sources said Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to summon Meta over the issue. MeitY will seek an explanation from the company regarding the alleged promotion of child sexual abuse material through Instagram advertisements in India.
The move comes after a BBC Eye investigation found that Instagram displayed paid advertisements containing terms such as "rape video" and "child video", directing users to Telegram channels where such illegal content was allegedly sold.
According to the BBC investigation, Instagram displayed paid advertisements containing terms such as "rape video" and "child video", which redirected users to Telegram channels where child sexual abuse material could allegedly be purchased for as little as Rs 99. The report noted that Instagram advertisements are published only after passing the platform's moderation process.
The BBC said it created an alias Instagram account in India after observing that the platform was recommending sexually suggestive content even without users searching for it.
The account followed 10 profiles posting sexually suggestive content to study Instagram's recommendation system. Within a week, the account began receiving advertisements featuring women offering video calls and explicit sexual content. Days later, it was shown advertisements depicting children with adults in sexually suggestive situations, along with links to Telegram channels. Overall, the account encountered around 30 unique advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material, some of which appeared through multiple advertiser accounts, in addition to about 20 advertisements featuring adult pornography.
The investigation said one advertisement showed a boy and a girl, who appeared to be around 12 years old, engaged in a sexual act. Another featured a man claiming to be 52 years old alongside a girl described as 12, urging users to click to watch more on Telegram. The BBC also reported an advertisement showing a young girl in tears with text suggesting she had been sexually assaulted. However, Instagram reportedly responded after 24 hours that the advertisement did not violate its community standards.
Following questions from the BBC, Meta said it had already disabled several advertisements and suspended the accounts responsible for posting them. The company said it removed additional advertisements, disabled more accounts and blocked URLs linked to content violating its policies after reviewing the BBC's findings. Meta acknowledged that "no system is perfect" and said its review process may fail to detect every policy violation. It added that it continues to use proactive detection technology even after advertisements go live and allows users to report violating content.
Meta said that whenever it becomes aware of apparent child exploitation, it reports the material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the central global reporting system for online child sexual exploitation, in compliance with applicable laws.
Former Supreme Court judge Madan Lokur told the BBC that the findings raised serious concerns and suggested that the Supreme Court could take suo motu cognisance of the issue. He said social media platforms cannot avoid responsibility despite legal protections that shield them from liability for user-generated content.
Former Facebook vice-president Brian Boland, who worked at the company between 2009 and 2020, said he was "horrified and unsurprised" by the findings. He alleged that Instagram's algorithm prioritises engagement by showing increasingly extreme content. Boland said he believed commercial considerations had gradually overtaken user safety within the company. He also said he deleted his Instagram account in 2025 and argued that users leaving the platform in large numbers would force the company to respond.
In response, Meta said child exploitation is a horrific crime and that it works aggressively to combat it across its platforms. The company rejected suggestions that it knowingly targeted such advertisements at users with inappropriate interests or prioritised revenue over safety. Meta said it automatically disabled more than four million accounts in 2025 after detecting signals of suspicious behaviour and continues developing technology to identify predators, block harmful links and share intelligence with other companies.
To tackle paedophilic content on social media, Kerala Police is using AI to crack down on child sexual abuse material online. The tool, Katalyst, helps sift through vast digital evidence, identify victims faster, and track perpetrators across social media platforms.
The Central government will summon officials of Meta after Instagram allegedly carried advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India, according to sources.
Sources said Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to summon Meta over the issue. MeitY will seek an explanation from the company regarding the alleged promotion of child sexual abuse material through Instagram advertisements in India.
The move comes after a BBC Eye investigation found that Instagram displayed paid advertisements containing terms such as "rape video" and "child video", directing users to Telegram channels where such illegal content was allegedly sold.
According to the BBC investigation, Instagram displayed paid advertisements containing terms such as "rape video" and "child video", which redirected users to Telegram channels where child sexual abuse material could allegedly be purchased for as little as Rs 99. The report noted that Instagram advertisements are published only after passing the platform's moderation process.
The BBC said it created an alias Instagram account in India after observing that the platform was recommending sexually suggestive content even without users searching for it.
The account followed 10 profiles posting sexually suggestive content to study Instagram's recommendation system. Within a week, the account began receiving advertisements featuring women offering video calls and explicit sexual content. Days later, it was shown advertisements depicting children with adults in sexually suggestive situations, along with links to Telegram channels. Overall, the account encountered around 30 unique advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material, some of which appeared through multiple advertiser accounts, in addition to about 20 advertisements featuring adult pornography.
The investigation said one advertisement showed a boy and a girl, who appeared to be around 12 years old, engaged in a sexual act. Another featured a man claiming to be 52 years old alongside a girl described as 12, urging users to click to watch more on Telegram. The BBC also reported an advertisement showing a young girl in tears with text suggesting she had been sexually assaulted. However, Instagram reportedly responded after 24 hours that the advertisement did not violate its community standards.
Following questions from the BBC, Meta said it had already disabled several advertisements and suspended the accounts responsible for posting them. The company said it removed additional advertisements, disabled more accounts and blocked URLs linked to content violating its policies after reviewing the BBC's findings. Meta acknowledged that "no system is perfect" and said its review process may fail to detect every policy violation. It added that it continues to use proactive detection technology even after advertisements go live and allows users to report violating content.
Meta said that whenever it becomes aware of apparent child exploitation, it reports the material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the central global reporting system for online child sexual exploitation, in compliance with applicable laws.
Former Supreme Court judge Madan Lokur told the BBC that the findings raised serious concerns and suggested that the Supreme Court could take suo motu cognisance of the issue. He said social media platforms cannot avoid responsibility despite legal protections that shield them from liability for user-generated content.
Former Facebook vice-president Brian Boland, who worked at the company between 2009 and 2020, said he was "horrified and unsurprised" by the findings. He alleged that Instagram's algorithm prioritises engagement by showing increasingly extreme content. Boland said he believed commercial considerations had gradually overtaken user safety within the company. He also said he deleted his Instagram account in 2025 and argued that users leaving the platform in large numbers would force the company to respond.
In response, Meta said child exploitation is a horrific crime and that it works aggressively to combat it across its platforms. The company rejected suggestions that it knowingly targeted such advertisements at users with inappropriate interests or prioritised revenue over safety. Meta said it automatically disabled more than four million accounts in 2025 after detecting signals of suspicious behaviour and continues developing technology to identify predators, block harmful links and share intelligence with other companies.
To tackle paedophilic content on social media, Kerala Police is using AI to crack down on child sexual abuse material online. The tool, Katalyst, helps sift through vast digital evidence, identify victims faster, and track perpetrators across social media platforms.
