A day after the Center issued a strict notice to the company, Meta responded to paid Instagram ads in India that allegedly promoted child sexual abuse material. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the big tech company said it was aware of the reports and took these concerns seriously, adding that it had already disabled several “infringing ads” even before the cases came to light.
“We are aware of recent news reports about Instagram ads in India that violate our policies against child exploitation. We want to be clear: we take these concerns seriously, we would never want this content on our platforms, and we are committed to improving our efforts to combat it,” Mita said, while stressing that child exploitation is a “horrific crime.”
“Before these cases were brought to our attention, our enforcement systems had already identified and disabled several violating ads and the accounts behind them,” she said, adding that additional action was taken after further investigation. Meta also said it was “grossly inaccurate to suggest” that the company would “knowingly and intentionally target ads that expose children to people based on an inappropriate interest in children.”
The technology company said it uses technology to identify accounts potentially with suspicious activities related to children, adding that 4 million accounts will be automatically removed in 2025.
Government issues notice to Meta to disable ads
On Saturday last week, the Center issued a strict notice to Meta over child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) in paid ads on Instagram, news agency PTI reported, citing sources.
“MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to CSEAM,” the sources said. The notice came a day after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directed MeitY officials to summon Meta over Instagram ads that allegedly promoted child sexual abuse material. The action came amid a BBCI investigation, which found that the big tech company was running paid ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India.
This was despite Meta’s advertising policies explicitly prohibiting nudity and sexually explicit content. The government has allegedly sought answers on how these ads were approved, what corrective actions Meta has taken since the allegations emerged, and what safeguards it plans to introduce to prevent such incidents in the future.
