IT Ministry to summon Meta officials over report on child sexual abuse advertisements on Instagram

📌 Summary:

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is summoning Meta over a recent report about the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) advertisements on Instagram
• IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directed MeitY officials to summon Meta on the matter of Instagram ads promoting CSAM in India
• The action spotlights platform accountability and intermediary due-diligence obligations for user and child safety
• It raises questions about ad-review systems and algorithmic amplification of illegal content on large social-media platforms

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Internal Security (social-media misuse, cyber safety of children) and GS2 Governance (regulation of intermediaries)

📝 Prelims Facts:

• MeitY is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
• The IT Rules, 2021 impose due-diligence and grievance-redress duties on intermediaries; failure can risk loss of "safe harbour" protection under Section 79 of the IT Act
• The POCSO Act, 2012 criminalises child sexual abuse material

🔑 Key Term: CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) — illegal content depicting the sexual abuse or exploitation of minors.