- The Ministry of Electronics and IT will summon Meta for explaining child abuse ads on Instagram
- Officials will seek details on safeguards preventing promotion of illegal content on Meta's platform
- The BBC investigation found Instagram ads linked to Telegram channels selling child sexual abuse material
Following allegations that advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material appeared on Instagram in India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has directed its officials to summon Meta for an explanation, according to sources.
MeitY officials said the ministry will seek an explanation from Meta regarding the reported issue and the safeguards in place to prevent such content from being promoted on its platform.
The move comes amid heightened scrutiny of online platforms over user safety, content moderation and compliance with Indian laws governing digital intermediaries.
The ministry is expected to question the company on how such advertisements were allowed to surface and what corrective measures have been taken to detect and remove them.
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According to the BBC World Service's investigation, Instagram displayed paid advertisements containing terms such as "rape video" and "child video", which allegedly redirected users to Telegram channels where child sexual abuse material was offered for sale.
The report said Meta removed several advertisements, suspended multiple accounts and blocked additional violating URLs after the BBC shared its findings.
Meta told the BBC that child exploitation is a "horrific crime" and said it works aggressively to combat such content across its platforms.
The company maintained that no moderation system is perfect and that it continues to improve its detection technology while reporting apparent child exploitation cases to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), in line with legal requirements.
The BBC report also noted that Meta derives a significant share of its revenue from advertising and that every advertisement undergoes review before publication.
However, the investigation raised concerns over the effectiveness of the platform's automated moderation systems in preventing illegal content from appearing.
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