'Stop them immediately': Centre orders Meta to remove Instagram ads promoting child sex abuse content

THe ministry of electronics and info technology (MeitY) issued a note to Meta o'er Instagram advertisements allegedly promoting baby sexual shout material in India, a government official said.In the notice, the government ordered Instagram to disable all advertisements and content promoting or facilitating access to child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM), the official added.7-day notice to Meta over Instagram adsThe government has given Meta seven days to submit a detailed explanation over the advertisements that allegedly directed users to external platforms hosting child sexual abuse material.The ministry also said that it views the alleged algorithmic amplification of sexually exploitative content with the utmost seriousness and has directed Meta to take immediate corrective measures, the government official told HT.The case, explainedThe government's move comes as Meta faces increasing scrutiny over its content moderation practices.A BBC Eye investigation said it had identified around 30 separate advertisements allegedly promoting child sexual abuse material in India. The broadcaster said it reported the advertisements to both Meta and the Indian authorities.According to the BBC report, Instagram displayed advertisements carrying phrases such as "rape video" and "child video", which allegedly redirected users to Telegram channels selling child sexual abuse material.The report also said that after it reported one such advertisement, Instagram initially replied that it did not breach the platform's community standards.The BBC created a new Instagram account after noticing that the platform was recommending sexually suggestive content even when the user had not searched for such material.The recommendations included posts by women in India sharing content about food, weather and their daily lives. Many of the posts featured revealing clothing and sexual innuendo, according to the BBC.A few days later, the account was shown advertisements featuring children with adults in sexually suggestive situations, and the advertisements included links directing users to Telegram channels, as per the report.Meta's responseFollowing the report, Meta removed several advertisements, disabled multiple accounts and blocked URLs that were found to have violated its policies.Meta said in a statement: “Meta has 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. That is why our expert teams are constantly working to improve our defenses, develop new technology to root out predators, block links to violating websites, and share intelligence with other companies so they can take action too.”