Centre orders Meta to disable Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse content
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📌 Summary:
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MeitY has issued a notice to Meta ordering Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting or facilitating access to Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM), demanding a detailed explanation within 7 days
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Trigger: a BBC Eye investigation found Instagram running paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material in India — ads used phrases like "rape video" and "child video" and directed users to Telegram channels selling material for as little as Rs 99
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Critical failure: Instagram ads go live only after passing Meta's own ad-moderation technology — meaning the platform's moderation approved the ads; when BBC flagged one ad, Instagram took over 24 hours and initially said it did not violate community guidelines
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Meta's response: claims a zero-tolerance policy for CSAM, uses AI to proactively detect violating content among 3.5 billion users, and says it took down several ads and suspended related accounts after the probe
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Government had earlier summoned Meta representatives following the report's publication
🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Internal Security — regulation of social-media intermediaries, IT Rules due-diligence obligations, child safety online; GS2 — governance of Big Tech
📝 Prelims Facts:
- CSEAM: Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material — term used in Indian law/IT Rules (broader than CSAM)
- MeitY — nodal ministry for intermediary regulation under the IT Act, 2000 and IT Rules, 2021
🔑 Key Term: Safe harbour (Section 79, IT Act) — legal immunity of intermediaries for third-party content, conditional on due diligence; hosting/approving illegal paid ads tests this protection.
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