IT Ministry summons Meta officials to report child sexual abuse ads on Instagram

FILE PHOTO: People walk past the Meta Platforms logo during a conference in Mumbai, India, September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo//File Photo | Photo credit: FRANCIS MASCARENHAS

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has summoned Meta over a recent report on the dissemination of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on Instagram.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has ordered “officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to summon the Met in the matter of Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India,” the official said.

Separately, Meta also met IT ministry officials to discuss the username feature on WhatsApp, which it fears could lead to a rise in fraud on the messaging platform. Meta did not respond to an inquiry at the meeting.

When summoned, a spokesperson told The Hindu that it has a “zero tolerance” policy towards CSAM. “We use advanced artificial intelligence technology to proactively detect infringing content and individuals, but we are constantly battling criminals who are hiding among our 3.5 billion users and trying to escape our detection,” a spokesperson said. “That’s why our teams of experts are constantly working to improve our defenses, develop new technologies to root out predators, block links to infringing websites and share information with other companies so they can take action as well.”

CSAM is illegal and Meta policies also prohibit pornographic content containing adults. Still, during the testing phase, the BBC report noted that the broadcaster was shown more than two dozen ads promoting CSAM with links to Telegram channels.

Telegram keeps a daily log of the channels it stops for showing CSAM, and routinely removes more than 1,000 channels per day, according to a log overview.

The IT ministry will “seek clarification” from Meta regarding the issue.

As for the WhatsApp username issue, Meta said it will roll it out later in the coming months and that it will notify users from their country of origin of people who message someone for the first time without revealing their phone number. Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, IT Minister S. Krishnan said WhatsApp would be asked to explain the feature in more detail in writing. The deadline for written responses is Saturday (July 4, 2026).

The IT ministry has argued that the feature could lead to impersonation and fraud, while protecting fraudsters’ phone numbers, making them harder to trace.

Published – 03 Jul 2026 18:22 IST