The government had issued a notice to Meta over content linked to child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) ordered Instagram to disable all advertisements and content promoting or facilitating the access to the material in the notice.
Meta has been given seven days to submit a detailed explanation of the advertisement that allegedly directed users to an external platform hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The ministry said that it views the alleged algorithmic amplification of the sexually exploitative content with the utmost seriousness and directed Meta to take immediate corrective measures, according to a government official who spoke to HT.
The notice comes after a BBC Eye investigation alleged that Meta’s recommendation has promoted videos containing CSAM. The report found ads of the nature appearing on both Facebook and Instagram despite Meta’s policies prohibiting nudity and sexually explicit content.
Instagram allegedly showed paid advertisements with terms such as rape video and child video, which directed users to Telegram channels where the content was on sale.
The BBC report also found that the platform recommended sexually suggestive content even when the user had not searched for such material.
The initial suggested post featured women in India sharing about food, weather and daily lives. The posts, however, also featured revealing content and sexually suggestive material.
Days later, the user was recommended ads featuring children in sexually suggestive situations with links to Telegram channels.
After the report, Meta issued a statement saying they have 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,’ the statement read.
