Disable child sex abuse ads and content on Meta's Instagram: Meity

Centre has also asked Meta to provide a detailed explanation on the presence of such content within 7 days

The Central government has directed Meta’s Instagram to disable all advertisements and content that promote and facilitate access to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the platform, sources said.

 

In a notice issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) late on Saturday

 

evening, technology giant Meta has also been asked to provide a detailed explanation on the presence of such content within seven days, the sources said.

 

“We have issued them a stern notice on CSAM and asked them to explain their policies on Instagram advertisements,” said a senior government official.

 

Last week, the IT ministry summoned senior executives from Meta and Instagram after reports of the platform running ads promoting CSAM surfaced.

 

 

The directions to disable ads were issued by Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who had also instructed ministry officials to seek an explanation from Meta on how these ads were allowed on the platform.

 

A spokesperson for Instagram said the platform as well as its parent company Meta had a zero tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing CSAM, including in ads.

 

“We use advanced AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection,” a spokesperson for the company said.

 

The notice issued on Saturday evening is the second such notice issued to Meta in the last fortnight.

 

Earlier, the IT ministry had asked Meta not to roll out WhatsApp’s new username feature until consultations are completed, amid concerns about potential misuse, including impersonation, fraud, and online scams.

 

The instructions came after WhatsApp announced it would soon allow users to reserve a username and share it with others instead of the phone number.

 

Soon, the Centre flagged concerns of the feature being misused for cybercrime and impersonation.

 

In its statement after the directive was issued, WhatsApp maintained it had strict policies and guidelines in place to prevent impersonation.

 

“Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp and we have built multiple layers of defense against scams into usernames. Other users need to know the exact username to message you, we will limit how many new people an account can contact, block repeated attempts to guess someone’s username key, and have systems to detect and remove activity showing common impersonation and abuse patterns,” a spokesperson for WhatsApp had said.

 

In a meeting with Meta executives last Friday, IT ministry officials also explained the government’s concerns related to the username feature, and especially how it could be exploited by cybercriminals.